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FORWARD MISSION STUDY COURSES 

EDITED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE 

MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT 



SOCIAL, POLITICAL, AND RELIGIOUS 
CONDITIONS 



(N. B.— Special helps and denominational missionary litera- 
ture for this course can be obtained by correspondence 
with the Secretary of your mission board or society.) 




BENITO JUAREZ 



MEXICO TO-DAY 



SOCIAL, POLITICAL, AND 
RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS 



BY 
GEORGE B. WINTON 



SMITH & LAMAR, AGTS. 

NASHVILLE, TENN. DALLAS, TEX. 

RICHMOND, VA. 






(ps 



a 

MAR 2 3 1915 

COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY 

MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT OF THE 
UNITED STATES AND CANADA 

NEW YORK 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTBE PAGE 

Preface ....... ix 

I The Country and People .... 3^ 
II Political Evolution 33 

III Religions, Ancient and Modern . . 75 

IV Social and Moral Inheritances . . .115 

V The Intellectual Awakening During the 

Nineteenth Century .... 143 

VI The Protestant Movement . . .175 



APPENDIXES 

A Constitution and Government . 

B Area and Population 

C Religion, Instruction, and Justice 

D Production and Industry . 

E Bibliography ..... 

F Statistics of Protestant Missions in Mexico 
1913 

Index . . . . . . 



209 
211 

212- 
213 
216 

223 

227 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Benito Juarez . . . . . Frontispiece 

Relief Map ...... Page 4 

Where Strawberries Ripen Every Day in 

the Year ......" 8 

Where 100 Bananas Sell for Eight Cents " 8 

Natives of Chihuahua . . . . " 20 

Prehistoric Remains: 

Calendar Stone Discovered 1790 . " 34 

Hall of Mosaics "34 

Porfirio Diaz "54 

Cathedral, Mexico City . . . . " 98 

Homes of the Poor . . . . . " 120 

Interior of Home of a Wealthy Gentleman " 120 

Street Gambling "132 

Group of Women and Children . . "132 
Woman Who Walked 100 Miles to Find a 

Protestant Church . . . . . " 136 

Children of Mexico " 150 

Studying English in Y. M. C. A., Chihua- 
hua "164 

Graduating Class, Normal School, Saltillo " 188 
Sarah L. Keen College for Girls, Mexico 

City "188 

Faculty and Students, Theological Semi- 
nary, Coyoacan ....." 192 

Faculty and Students, Queretaro Institute " 192 

Trinity Church, Chihuahua . . . " 198 

vii 



viii Illustrations 

McMurtrie Chapel and Manse, Coyoacan Page 198 
A Christian Family . . ... . " 200 

Typical Rural Home of a Christian Family *' 200 
Map ........ End 



PREFACE 

Mexico and its affairs have of late taken 
much space in the press dispatches. For 
about a generation that country has been well 
policed and has prospered. A general shock 
of surprise and disappointment has there- 
fore been felt at recent events. Many have 
been ready to charge the renewal of insur- 
rection and war to racial defects in the Mexi- 
can people. A good deal of superficial writ- 
ing has appeared in the papers, — the remarks 
of observers ignorant of the country's history 
and failing in consequence to enter into the 
deeper currents of its national life. 

The Mexican people are engaged in a strug- 
gle for freedom. Political independence has 
been achieved ; liberty of conscience is at last 
realized; a liberal constitution guarantees 
human rights. But the burden of popular 
ignorance and of industrial helplessness has 
not yet been lifted. That load must be 
taken off. It has grown insufferable. The 
paroxysms that are now shaking the country 
to its center are but blind struggles after this 
liberty. Mexico needs help, especially the 

ix 



X Peeface 

help of her nearest neighbors on the north. 
To know her condition, to sympathize, to lend 
a hand in the work of education and in the 
spread of true religion, is far better than to 
criticise and to threaten her with armed inter- 
vention. This book has been written wholly 
in the interest of a better understanding 
between neighbors. 

G. B. WiNTON. 
Nashville, Tenn., May 20, 1913. 



THE COUNTEY AND PEOPLE 



The most famous group of mines, historically, is that in 
the districts of Guanajuato, Zacatecas, and Catone in the 
states of Guanajuato, Zacatecas, and San Luis Potosi 
respectively. These districts, covering an area of some 
thirteen thousand square miles, are practically within the 
tropics, for the northern boundary is only 24 degrees and 
30 minutes north of the equator. The Veta Madre lode of 
Guanajuato alone produced $252,000,000 between 1556 and 
1803.— Joseph King Goodrich. 

Now with regard to the character of the people. They 
are as Oriental in type, in thought, and in habits as the 
Orientals themselves. It is true they have a veneer of 
European civilization; but underneath this, veneer, on 
studying the people and becoming better acquainted with 
them, we find that they are genuine Asiatics. They have 
some of the fatalism, the same tendency for speculation 
on the unpractical side of life and religion, the same oppo- 
sition to the building up of industries, the same tradition- 
alism and respect for the usages of antiquity. The lan- 
guage spoken is the Spanish, which is universally used 
by the Indian tribes. — William Wallace. 

Land holdings are concentrated to a greater degree in 
Mexico to-day than they were in France in 1789. Seven 
thousand families hold practically all the arable land. If 
the distribution were proportionately the same as it is in 
the United States, one million Mexican families would be 
in possession of titles to landed property. In the state 
of Morelos, the center of the Zapatist revolt, tw'elve 
hacendados (proprietors) own nine tenths of the farming 
property. In Chihuahua, the center of the agrarian revo- 
lution in^ the north, the Terrazas family holds nearly 
twenty million acres, which comprise nearly all the tillable 
soil of that state. The greater portion of the state of 
Yucatan is held by thirty men, kings of sisal hemp. The 
territory of Quintana Roo, which is double the size of 
Massachusetts, is divided among eight companies. When 
I visited Madero on January 27, he unrolled a map of 
Lower California showing the land gifts of General Diaz. 
That territory, equal in area to Alabama, had been sold 
in five vast tracts for about three fifths of a cent an 
acre. — John Kenneth Turner. 



CHAPTER I 

THE COUNTRY AND PEOPLE 

A Pleasant land. Mexico is a picture book 
for the study of geography. Nowhere can 
mountain and plain, valley and foothill, river, 
lake, forest, and field be seen in sharper out- 
line or examined on a more beautiful map 
of gray and green and gold. Travelers will 
find that country well worth a visit. The 
trip is convenient and inexpensive ; and it is 
well to remember — strange as the statement 
may sound — that it is as pleasant in summer 
as in winter. ** But is not Mexico in the 
tropics? '^ To be sure. But most of it is 
from five to nine thousand feet above sea- 
level, and an altitude of five thousand feet or 
over guarantees pleasant summer weather, 
no matter what the latitude is. 

The Mountains. Glance at the map. Down 
either side of the curving triangle runs a rib 
of mountains — the Sierra Madre (Mother 
Eange) each is called, one of the east, the 
other of the west. They are continuations in 
a rough way of the Rockies and Sierra Ne- 

3 



4 Mexico To-Day 

vada. (Nevada means *' snow-capped.'')" 
These main ranges are mostly quite near the 
sea — the Gulf of Mexico on the east, the Pa- 
cific Ocean on the west. The region between 
each range and its corresponding coast is 
everywhere a broken tangle of deep gorges, 
vast cliffs, terraced foothills, and open val- 
leys, of varying elevations, with here and 
there a strip of hot, seacoast plain. The de- 
scent from the summit of the ranges to sea- 
level may be anything from six to twelve 
thousand feet, and as this huge drop of two 
miles is often made in fifty miles or less of 
distance, one reason at once appears why so 
few railways have made their way out to the 
coast. 

Along the Coast. The coastal strips and ad- 
joining foothills have never been thickly in- 
habited. Along the coast the climate is dry 
and very hot. On the mountainsides there is 
more rainfall, and verdure is abundant. But 
the hills and the gorges are usually so rough 
as to be almost uninhabitable, and, besides, 
terrible malarial fevers prevail. A plague 
of insect pests interferes with agriculture 
and stock-raising, to say nothing of making 
life burdensome to the human animal. To 
these disadvantages of life in the coast re- 
gion is to be added the singular fact that on 



The Country and People 5 

the whole huge coast-line of Mexico (about 
6,000 miles) on the east and west together, 
there is scarcely a single good harbor. Vera 
Cruz has only a roadstead, Tampico but the 
narrow and tortuous channel of a river. On 
the west the harbors at Acapulco and Mazat- 
lan are a little better, but the Pacific Ocean is 
very wide, and there has never been much 
traffic with the Orient. So it comes about 
that up to the present the coast cities are in- 
significant, the coast region sparsely inhab- 
ited, and all of Mexico that is worth while is 
on the great central plateau. 

Central Plateau. This plateau is a curving 
triangle, shaped like the country, highest at 
its southern apex where the two great ranges 
draw together and sloping gradually to the 
valley of the Eio Grande on the north. Mon- 
terey is the only city of importance situated 
outside the plateau. It lies north of a fold 
in the great range of the east, and is itself 
about two thousand feet above sea-level. 

Climate of Central Eegion. This outline of 
topography will account for the surprising 
statement that Mexico is a good summer re- 
sort. The general level of the country be- 
tween the great ranges, the country which is 
really Mexico, is more than five thousand feet 
above sea-level. This guarantees cool, sweet 



6 Mexico To-Day 

air even in midsummer. This interior pla- 
teau is not a perfectly flat table-land, but is 
itself broken up into smaller ranges, hills, 
and plains. Much of it is considerably above 
the average altitude, and several of the cities 
■ — Mexico, Zacatecas, Toluca, and others — are 
more than seven thousand feet above sea- 
level. Toluca is nearly nine thousand, and is 
overshadowed by a snow-capped mountain. 
Its air is chill and bracing during the hottest 
months, yet it suffers from no severe cold 
even in winter. 

Tonic Yet Trying Temperattire. This absence 
of winter is one of the marked features of 
life in Mexico. Over the wide reaches of the 
plateau it often forms frosts during the win- 
ter months, but seldom freezes. Those are 
months of sunshine; the bright sun each day 
warms up the air and the earth, while the 
warm winds that roll up from the tropic seas 
on either side of the narrow continent keep 
real winter well at bay. As will be seen, with 
winters that are so mild and sunny and with 
summers tempered by cool mountain breezes, 
high altitudes, and frequent showers, Mexico 
offers for mere human comfort an almost 
ideal climate. High altitudes make insidious 
inroads on the nerves, however, and the 
sharp changes from heat by day to frost by 



The Country and People 7 

night may be disastrous to health if not 
guarded against. The water supply is 
usually defective and the sanitation of the 
cities, most of which are very old, leaves 
much to be desired. 

Lack of Eainfall. This remark about the' 
water brings up the most noteworthy aspect 
of the Mexican climate, next to the even tem- 
perature. Mexico is an arid country. It is 
so situated with reference to the trade-winds 
that even along its coasts the rainfall is scant. 
In the interior it is even lighter. The two 
mountain ranges, east and west, act as fences 
against moisture. They comb the clouds out 
of the breezes that flow up from the ocean 
and the Gulf. There is, nevertheless, a rainy 
season — from May to October — throughout 
the plateau. In some years the rains are 
sufficient to produce fair crops of corn and 
beans and barley. These rains are usually 
more abundant toward the southern end of 
the plateau. In some of the northern and 
central sections the rainfall is so light that 
no crops can be counted on without irriga- 
tion. But water for irrigation is itself un- 
certain, depending on the rainfall. None of 
the mountain ranges have snow on them. A 
few volcanic peaks near the junction of the 
two ranges south of Mexico City reach up 



8 Mexico To-Day 

into the region of perpetual snow. The 
snow-line is, of course, higher there than in 
northern latitudes. But the long sierras east 
and west are without the treasures of ice and 
snow to melt under the summer sun and send 
down a gush of permanent water when the 
plains need it most. Eecourse is therefore 
had to dams and reservoirs, which catch the 
overflow when the summer rains fall and 
store it up against the drouth of planting 
time the next spring. Such enterprises are 
expensive, but as the lands are fertile and the 
sun warm and constant, the returns are enor- 
mous. Wherever there are streams that are 
at all permanent they are tapped and drawn 
off into cultivated fields. Many of them 
thus never make their way out to the sea, 
and most of them are often dry and desolate 
looking. 

Mexico's Products. The products of the in- 
terior of the country are those of the tem- 
perate rather than of the tropic zone. Corn, 
wheat, barley, beans, cotton, peppers, toma- 
toes, oranges, berries, and similar products 
are staples. Potatoes, tomatoes, corn, and 
tobacco are indigenous to the New World. 
Mexico subsists largely on corn. Before the 
days of the Europeans its people had learned 
to soak the grain in limewater, pound it 




Copyright by Underwood and Underwood, N. Y. 

WHERE STRAWBEREIES RIPEN EVERY DAY IN THE YEAR 

WHERE 100 BANANAS SELL FOR EIGHT CENTS 



The Country and People 9 

while damp into dough and bake the cakes of 
this on hot stones. These little cakes or tor- 
tillas are still the staple bread of the country. 
The Spaniards brought over beans or fri- 
joles. These, boiled in water and afterward, 
if the family can afford it, fried in lard, sup- 
plement the corn cakes. These two ingre- 
dients make up nine tenths of the fare of 
nine tenths of the people of Mexico. If there 
is no lard in which to fry the beans, they are 
eaten boiled ; if there are no beans, the tortil- 
las are eaten alone — with perhaps a few raw 
peppercorns to flavor them. The fondness 
of the people for hot red and green peppers 
or chillies is well known. With them they 
season about everything which they cook, 
often too strongly for unaccustomed palates. 
Scenery and Flora. Mexico is a picturesque 
land. The air is astonishingly clear. Dis- 
tant objects appear near. The mountains 
are bare and rugged, their bones sticking out 
harshly. The country has few forests, and 
they mostly of small trees. The scantiness 
of moisture is everywhere apparent. Many 
of the plains appear to be nothing more than 
sandy deserts. As for that, much depends 
on the season. In the time of the rains these 
plains break out with the green and gold of 
flowering plants. The stiff yuccas and cac- 



10 Mexico To-Day 

tuses which one sees weathering even the dry 
seasons — the time of year when most people 
visit Mexico — have more life in them than 
they seem to have, and all of them are 
nseful. The yuccas produce a valuable 
fiber, and the flat-leaved cactus a fruit that 
is highly esteemed. The maguey or cen- 
tury plant is tapped for a sweet juice 
that ferments into a kind of beer; it is 
crushed and the juice distilled into a fiery 
brandy; its leaves make food for cattle; its 
stalk is preserved and eaten for sweetmeat; 
a fiber from it makes ropes, cloth, or paper; 
and in a dozen other homely ways this 
strange plant is made to minister to the 
needs of man. It is called, for example, the 
thread-and-needle plant. The pointed tip of 
its great leaves may be broken off in such a 
manner that by pulling on it a long and 
strong fiber is drawn from the leaf. One has 
thus in his hand a needle and a thread for 
such repairs of his clothes as moving through 
the thorny thickets may have made urgent. 
Animal life. The thickets of short vegeta- 
tion, on foothills and mountains that at a 
little distance seem utterly bare, are often 
surprisingly dense. They furnish hiding- 
places and browse for wild deer and domestic 
goats and cattle. Through them swarm 



The Country and People 11 

quail and hares and coyotes; hundreds of 
cactus wrens, fly-catchers, and mocking-birds 
nest among them, and cheer the lonely 
reaches with their song. The whole plateau 
region is largely free of obnoxious insects. 
The smaller mountain ranges are often 
crowned with oaks and pines, and with their 
wide views, bracing air, and tonic nights, free 
from frost and rain, offer ideal conditions 
for camping. 

Minerals. From the beginning Mexico has 
been famous for the abundance of the pre- 
cious metals. These strange, bare-looking 
mountains often conceal great treasures of 
silver and gold. The output of silver from 
the mountains of Mexico has been, and still 
is, enormous. There are single mines that 
have been producing for over a hundred 
years and are still not exhausted. The ex- 
ports of silver during the Spanish regime 
have to be counted in ship-loads, and the 
total is so enormous that it is quite incom- 
prehensible. Gold has been found in many 
places, and is produced in paying quantities. 
Quicksilver abounds in some parts of the 
republic, and is immensely valuable. There 
are also one or two copper-producing re- 
gions, especially in the northwest. But it is 
for lead and silver that Mexico is best known. 



12 Mexico To-Day 

Great smelting plants have been set up in 
several principal cities — Monterey, Aguas- 
calientes, San Luis Potosi, and elsewhere, — 
and even in many isolated mining regions. 
Eailways have been driven through the 
roughest mountain sections to bring out the 
products of the mines, and the additions from 
this source to the wealth of the country have 
been on a grand scale. 

Geology. Geologically much of Mexico is of 
recent formation, and even the ranges that 
are of ancient rock have most of them been 
jostled and tilted out of their level by later 
volcanic action. Much of the limestone has 
been metamorphosed into marble, of which 
there are inexhaustible supplies. In many 
places beautiful and valuable onyx is found. 
One volcano, Colima, is still active occasion- 
ally, and throughout the whole country, in 
the south and west especially, earthquake 
shocks are not infrequent. 

Other Products. Besides minerals, Mexico 
exports manila hemp, ixtle ^ fiber, bananas, 
coffee, tobacco, vanilla, chocolate, and vari- 
ous other articles of commerce. Of staple 
farm products she scarcely produces enough 
for her own people, especially in years of 

1 Ixtle or istle fiber comes from several plants growing in 
Mexico. 



The Country and People 13 

light rainfall. The progress of the country 
has been impeded by the holding of its land 
in large tracts, much of it unimproved, and 
the reduction of the small farmer to the cate- 
gory of renter or hired man. Stock-raising 
is an important part of the rural interests of 
the country. There are large exportations 
of hides, and in recent years, of cattle, while 
the interior traffic in horses, cattle, goats, 
and sheep is always heavy. 

The People. The people of Mexico are, in 
their way, as picturesque as their country. 
Something over half of them are of mixed 
blood, Indian and Spanish. Of the remain- 
der a good deal more than half are pure- 
blood natives — Indians, we call them, for 
lack of a better name. The rest are Euro- 
peans, mostly Spaniards. For a good while 
after the coming of the Spaniards (in 1521) 
a careful distinction was kept up between 
natives or indigenas, the Spaniards, and the 
mixed bloods or mestizos. There were dis- 
tinctions even in the grades of these, such as 
half-breeds, quadroons, octoroons, and other 
gradations; and the Mexican-born children 
of Spaniards or Creoles (criollos) were also 
distinguished from people born in Europe. 
In a general way these distinctions were so- 
cial, and tended to lower the standing of all 



14 Mexico To-Day 

others below the level of the Spanish hidalgo^ 
whether soldier, priest, or governor. The 
rulers in Chnrch and state and the large land 
and mine owners — often the same people — 
formed a sort of aristocracy to which the rest 
of the world looked up. They were usually 
proud of their Spanish blood and took pains 
to keep it from intermixture. Spaniards of 
a lower class, however, mingled freely with 
the natives. The Creoles, already somewhat 
otfcaste because Creoles, were even readier 
to adopt the social level of the people with 
whom they had associated from childhood.^ 

The Mixing: of Kaces. For three hundred 
years the process of amalgamation went on. 
Comparatively speaking, not many women 
came from old Spain to New Spain, as Mex- 
ico was then called. On the other hand, the 
Indians found in Mexico were sufficiently ad- 
vanced in agricultural and industrial arts to 
hold their own in competition. They had 
social institutions and were of a high order 
of intelligence. Physically they were not 
inferior to the Spaniards, not even a great 
deal darker in complexion than the Andalu- 

1 One result of this came to be a confusion in the minds of 
many as to the meaning of the word " Creole," a word which 
was often applied to mestizos. Properly it means American- 
born children of European parents. 



The Countky and People 15 

sians. The Mexican women especially were 
petite, modest, attractive. Intermarriage 
therefore became common. It was indeed 
inevitable. There were no grave barriers. 
Social lines were drawn, but for other rea- 
sons. The people of mixed blood multiplied. 
They came to be nearly half of the popula- 
tion. Any attempt to ostracize them as a 
class was more and more absurd. In 1821, 
three hundred years after the arrival of the 
Spaniards, Mexico was freed from Spain. 
After that there was — theoretically, at least 
■ — equal opportunity for all. The old mori- 
bund distinctions died at last. Now all are 
Mexicans, and proud of it. They take about 
as little interest in the question of how much 
or little of Spanish blood an individual has 
as we do in the United States in the question 
whether a man's grandfather was Scottish, 
English, or Irish, German, French, or Ameri- 
can. A few families keep to the " blue '' 
Spanish blood in their marriages, and pri- 
vately make some boast of it. But they too 
are none the less enthusiastic Mexicans. To 
be a gachupin (nickname for Spaniard) is 
by no means popular in Mexico. 

The Native Races. Eesearches into the his- 
tory of the Mexican tribes prior to the com- 
ing of the Europeans are more interesting 



16 Mexico To-Day 

than satisfactory. The tribes that had suc- 
cessively inhabited the Valley of Mexico — 
Toltec, Aztec, and others, — had developed a 
fairly intelligible picture-writing. They had 
invented a process for making excellent paper 
out of certain fibrous plants, and on this pa- 
per, in the hieroglyphics of which they made 
use, they had many valuable records and 
memoranda. Unfortunately a perfect ma- 
nia for destroying everything connected with 
the priests and worship of the Indians pos- 
sessed the Spanish conquerors. These 
Spaniards were mostly illiterate and super- 
stitious men, the priests who were with them 
being not much better than the soldiers. 
Since the sacrifice of prisoners before the 
god of war was one of the desperate resorts 
that marked the resistance of the Indians to 
the invaders, the Spanish naturally con- 
ceived a great horror for all their religion. 
They sincerely believed it devil worship. 
Hence they ruthlessly destroyed the invalu- 
able records laid up in the temples, and 
so rendered abortive any attempt to trace 
back the history of the interesting and more 
than half-civilized peoples whom they were 
striving to conquer. Within a very few 
years the folly of this wholesale destructive- 
ness began to be seen. Persons of scholarly 



The Countky and People 17 

taste did all they could to remedy it. A 
young Spanish priest, Padre Sahagun, came 
to Mexico in 1829 as a missionary to the In- 
dians. He was a gentle, amiable man, of 
humanitarian temper, who soon came to 
sympathize thoroughly with the people 
among whom he labored. He had the schol- 
ar's instinct for what is valuable and inter- 
esting, and set himself to learn the native 
language. In the course of a few years he 
produced a valuable lexicon, written in three 
columns, one giving the Indian, the next the 
Spanish, and the third the Latin word. It 
will be recalled that at the time the lexicon 
was prepared the Spanish language itself 
had scarcely crystallized into its classical 
mold, so that Latin had to be resorted to for 
scholarly definition. 

An Early Spanish Scholar. Sahagun passed 
from the study of the native language to the 
study of the people themselves and their 
history. Encouraged for a time by his eccle- 
siastical superiors, who allowed him leisure 
and financial help, he surrounded himself 
with Indian scholars who were able to inter- 
pret and to write the picture symbols in use 
before the Spanish came. These men col- 
lected such annals as had been fortunately 
left over from the universal devastation of 



18 Mexico To-Day 

the conquest, and when these were lacking 
they made new ones. In this way, by the 
interpretations given by Sahagun and oth- 
ers, something of the story of the Indians 
may be learned. This good man devoted 
sixty years to these studies, much of the 
time in poverty, the object of jealousy and 
suspicion. His work has been of immense 
value to students. 

The Aztec Kingdom. It was only recently, 
comparatively speaking, that the records had 
been kept. The Aztec Kingdom of Monte- 
zuma had been built on the ruins of a Toltec 
civilization that in everything but warlike 
vigor had been superior to it. Its capital, 
which we now call Mexico City, was lo- 
cated on a rocky island in a great shallow 
lake. The place was selected because it was 
easy to defend. Its location had been desig- 
nated by the medicine-men of the tribe when 
they had found there a small eagle sitting on 
a cactus devouring a snake. This device is 
now the coat of arms of the Mexican repub- 
lic. Here the Aztecs, who were a tribe of 
warriors that had drifted in from the west, 
soon built up a hostile city over against the 
capital of the Toltecs, situated across Lake 
Texcoco, overcame their more civilized 
neighbors, and by the time of the Spanish 



The Countey and People 19 

invasion were the dominating force in all 
that part of Mexico. 

Toltecs and Others. The Toltecs, whom they 
subjugated, had, like themselves, come from 
the west. The place names which still re- 
main indicate that they came up from the 
Pacific coast in the neighborhood of San 
Bias, tarrying more or less in what is now 
the state of Jalisco, and gradually moving on 
to the beautiful region about Mexico City, 
where they seem to have displaced still ear- 
lier inhabitants. These remote tribes moved 
down east and south leaving striking remains 
in the stone buildings of ruined cities still to 
be found. These buildings exhibit much 
skill and taste in stone work, and some of 
them are covered with inscriptions which 
have never yet been deciphered. 

Early Migrations. How these successive mi- 
grations had originally reached the west 
coast of Mexico is not known. The tradi- 
tions of the Indians themselves mostly point 
to a land migration down the coast from the 
north. It is believed by some that these 
were the people who left behind them the 
great cliff dwellings and the remains of an 
elaborate irrigation system in Arizona and 
New Mexico. They seem to have been 
driven out of that region by the inroads of 



20 Mexico To-Day 

warlike desert tribes, possibly the Apaches, 
They were not themselves warlike but agri- 
cultural and pacific in their tastes. 

Kinship to Japanese. Both the Mexican In- 
dians and the Pueblo tribes, the Mohaves, 
Zuhi, Navajos, and others of our own south- 
west, are a small brown type of men, quite 
different from the tall, copper-colored Ameri- 
cans of the east and north. Many things 
suggest their kinship with the Japanese. The 
ocean current which strikes our west coast, 
flowing almost directly east, might have 
brought over in some remote past immigrants, 
willing or unwilling, from the Sunrise King- 
dom. But, as the Mexicans are fond of say- 
ing, Quien sahel (Who knows?) 

People Now Homogeneous. In spite of the 
fact that the people of Mexico vary thus in 
their origin they show to-day a marked and 
homogeneous national type. There are some 
sharp variations, it is true, among the native 
Indians — those tribes which, remaining in 
retired mountain regions, have kept from in- 
termingling with the Europeans. The Ta- 
rasco varies from the Huasteco and both 
from the Aztec or Mixtec. These variations 
are not radical, however, and result in part 
from differences in habitat and surround- 
ings. The same physical type prevails gen- 




NATIVES OF CIIinUAHUA 



The Countey and People - 21 

erally. The native Mexican is short and 
sturdy. His face and head are large, his 
feet and hands small, his palm long and fin- 
gers short, his body muscular. He can carry 
enormous loads, and as a runner in high alti- 
tudes is incomparable. His lung power is 
immense and his endurance a wonder. An 
Indian will hire himself to a traveler to carry 
his valise over the mountain trails, the trav- 
eler proceeding on Horseback. In such a 
case the Indian with the valise on his back 
is always more than a match for the horse. 

Tlie Indians To-day. These remaining native 
tribes keep timidly to the wild mountain re- 
gions that have not been taken away from 
them for farming or other purposes. They 
hold tenaciously to their lands and are jeal- 
ous of any inroads by ^' white folks," 
whether for mining, lumbering, or trade. 
They have been cheated, tricked, and im- 
posed upon for four hundred years and have 
reason to be on their guard. Yet no people 
in the world are more amiable and cordial 
with those who merit and have won their con- 
fidence. Their hospitality is untiring and 
their good-will unfeigned. They are all 
nominally converted to the Catholic faith, 
just as they all yield obedience to the consti- 
tuted government. There was in fact no 



22 Mexico To-Day 

great difference in tlie way they were 
bronglit into subjection to the one and the 
other. 

Capacity of Indians. While at the time of 
the Spanish conquest some of the tribes ex- 
hibited more advance in civilization than 
others, and while since that time there have 
been more conspicuous individuals arising 
from one tribe than from another, it seems 
a fact that the Indians of practically all the 
tribes are intelligent and capable of great 
development. The theory which seems to 
get lodged in the minds of many, that the 
civilized Mexicans are all Europeans or of 
European blood, does not at all square with 
the facts. Padre Sahagun speaks of the 
men who were associated with him in reduc- 
ing the Indian language and history to writ- 
ing as '' very intelligent men," and he deals 
with them and their work quite as deferen- 
tially as though they had shared with him 
the best culture of the Europe of his day. 

Famous Indians. And in spite of the fact 
that from the very beginning the natives 
were forced into a position of subjection and 
inferiority, were denied intellectual training 
and many civil and social rights, there has 
never been a period in Mexico 's history with- 
out its distinguished men of Indian stock — 



The Countey and People 23 

poets, painters, statesmen, warriors, — wlio 
rose by sheer ability against the vast handi- 
cap that bore them back, and took their 
places among the great ones of their country. 
The famous patriot, constitutionalist, and 
President, Benito Juarez, probably Mexico's 
very greatest man, was a full-blood Mix- 
tec Indian, a shepherd boy who did not 
learn Spanish till he was fourteen years old. 
Many other illustrious names stand with his 
on the roll of fame. And in addition the 
common experience of everyday life has 
shown over and over again that in essential 
human worth the native, so long despised, is 
not a whit inferior to those who by the acci- 
dent of better arms once subjugated him. 
Long ago, therefore, it came about that no 
Mexican is ashamed of Indian blood; rather, 
he is proud of it. A notion common in the 
United States, that you compliment a Mexi- 
can by calling him a Spaniard, provokes 
south of the Rio Grande only a broad smile. 
The Mestizos. The people of mixed blood, 
about half of the total population, are the 
farmers, the artisans, the traders, servants, 
miners, laborers, and too often loafers, 
of the villages, farms, cities, and towns of 
the great central plateau. It is mostly they, 
rather than the real Indians, who are the 



24 Mexico To-Day 

peons of whom we have heard so much. 
This word, in ordinary usage in Mexico, sim- 
ply means an unskilled laborer. Its technical 
meaning is due to certain industrial laws 
and customs long prevailing in that country, 
but now, thanks to President Diaz, largely 
abolished. 

Moral Tendencies. No railing accusation is 
to be brought against a whole nation nor 
even against a whole class in a nation. It 
is unfortunately true, nevertheless, that the 
law that people of mixed blood tend to in- 
herit the vices of both sides of their ancestry, 
rather than the virtues, has operated in Mex- 
ico. Deprived of any fixed social standing, 
with no certain avenues of development open 
to them, their wits sharpened by contact with 
civilizing conditions but lacking the correc- 
tion of formal education, their religion a mat- 
ter of form and show, their morbid taste for 
gambling and dissipating amusements given 
free rein, it is not surprising that the mesti- 
zos of Mexico have often been a turbulent 
and unruly element in the body politic. They 
have differed from the Indian largely in be- 
ing without the pressure of his conservative 
social and domestic traditions. 

A Middle Class. The mestizos or mixed 
bloods are the typical Mexicans of to-day. 



The Country and People 25 

The chances are pretty nearly ten to one that 
any chance Mexican encountered is a man 
who is neither all Indian nor all Spaniard. 
The question of blood matters little to them, 
and should matter little to us. They are the 
great body of the people of their country, 
that should be, and that doubtless soon will 
be, the great middle class. For a long time 
Mexico had no middle class: only the rich 
and the poor — very rich and very poor. To- 
day is changing that. Freedom, public 
schools, modern industrialism, better wages, 
open fields of opportunity, the stirring of a 
new intellectual awakening, the leaven of the 
gospel are elements that are swiftly building 
up a middle class, independent, self-support- 
ing, self-respecting, intelligent, moral. If 
only the ambitions of politicians would allow 
the country to remain at peace, in another 
generation the work could largely be done 
and the future of Mexico assured. No demo- 
j cratic government can persist unless it rests 
ion a great body of such middle class people. 
And once such a people conjes to feel its 
strength, no government but a democratic 
government will be permitted by it. 

The Spanish Stock. The pure-blood Spanish 
stock, in so far as it now forms anything like 
a class, is confined to the very wealthy fami- 



26 Mexico To-Day 

lies. The men of this class are usually edu- 
cated, cultured, agreeable. They have trav- 
eled widely and they exhibit the fine traits 
bred by an affluent civilization. When they 
have so chosen they have usually been the 
governing class in Mexico. Under republi- 
can institutions this state of things is rapidly 
ceasing. The public schools during thirty- 
five years of peace have already turned out 
a whole generation of young fellows, many 
of them representing nothing at all of family 
prestige, who are taking their places beside 
the men of the old ruling class and sharply 
competing with them in leadership. And be- 
sides, in these descendants of the hidalgos, 
three centuries of luxury has bred a good 
deal of distaste for the moil of politics, and 
sapped in some measure that physical vi- 
tality which is still so ample in the sons of 
the people. Thus there is in the modern 
political and social life of Mexico a leveling 
down as well as a leveling up. And in so far 
as this concerns privilege and power, none 
need of course regret it. The day of gov- 
ernment by the people, the plain people, the 
common people, is dawning in all the world. 
Spaniard and Indian. The relations between 
the Spanish conquerors and their successors 
and the natives of Mexico make an interest- 



The Country and People 27 

ing study. At times one smiles at it, more 
often he grieves. The attitude of mind of 
the early Spanish colonists comes out in a 
curious phrase which they employed to dis- 
tinguish themselves from the natives. They 
and their children were spoken of as " gente 
de razon/' to distinguish them from the In- 
dians, mere " indigenas.'' The phrase prob- 
ably came into use as the equivalent of 
'^ educated " or " cultured '' people. But it 
literally means '^ people of reason," the im- 
plication being that the Indians were without 
reason. Indeed some of the early military 
governors, who did not like the way the mis- 
sionaries stood up for the natives, argued 
against all missionary work among them on 
the ground that they had no souls. Such ob- 
jections were once made in our own country 
against religious work among the Negroes. 

A Great Indian. Judge Ignacio Altamirano, 
one of Mexico's greatest literary leaders, a 
lover of Shakespeare and fond of English 
literature generally, died a few years ago in 
Paris, where he was consul-general for Mex- 
ico. He was a full-blood Indian, and thor- 
oughly typical physically, — dark, slight, with 
a large face and dainty hands and feet. He 
used to tell with considerable humor how he 
came to get his start educationally. In the 



28 Mexico To-Day 

school of the village where he lived a strict 
distinction was kept up between Indians and 
^^ people of reason/' and only the children 
of the latter were admitted. But in the 
course of time his father, a sturdy Indian, 
was elected alcalde or mayor of the town. 
His mother, who had already prepared 
for her little boy an ahecedario — the let- 
ters of the alphabet on a shingle — put in 
a claim at once that since his father was 
now a public official, Ignacio had become 
'^ gente de razon.'' The teacher of the 
school was somewhat nonplussed at this new 
argument, but concluded that it would be 
wise to decide the matter in the way that 
would compliment the alcalde. So Ignacio 
got into the primary school, was recognized 
as ^' gente de razon,'' and amply proved it 
by becoming, so far as the record shows, the 
school's one distinguished pupil. 

Peonage. In spite of this lordly and some- 
times contemptuous attitude, the Spaniard 
was often a kind master. On the great plan- 
tations conditions prevailed almost identical 
with those in the South of our own country 
during slavery days. The peons of a 
hacienda were enslaved in a somewhat worse 
way than if they had been bought as chattels. 
Chattel slaves are always well cared for be- 



The Countey and People 29 

cause they are actual property. Peonage 
was a kind of industrial slavery in which it 
was the man's labor that was pawned and not 
his person. Hence the master, unless he was 
a man of heart, felt no responsibility for the 
well-being, physical or moral, of the hands 
on his place. This manner of life went on, 
let it not be forgotten, for three hundred 
years. No wonder that it scored furrows in 
the social fabric of Mexico so deep that a 
hundred years of freedom and of industrial 
improvement have not yet wiped them all 
out. 

Summary, Such is Mexico and such are her 
people. It is a land of contrasts, of warm 
valleys lush with orchid and palm and of chill 
reaches of rocky and pine-clad mountains ; of 
smiling skies and of forbidding desert lands ; 
of rugged, sawlike mountain ranges and wide 
and shimmering plain; of snow-crowned 
peaks that look down eighteen thousand feet 
to tropic seas — a contrast found nowhere 
else in the world; of careless, boundless 
wealth beside hopeless penury; of culture, 
complete and modern, in contact with piteous 
ignorance. It is a land of long past; yester- 
days but also of a bright to-morrow. It has 
one school which was founded a hundred 
years before Harvard. Its prehistoric re- 



30 Mexico To-Day 

mains rival Egypt. Yet it is a playground 
and a field of exploitation for tlie restless 
spirits of the twentieth centnry. It is the 
Old World in the New. It is the Egypt of 
the Occident. It is a land of dreams and of 
gracious realities. It needs the gospel, it 
loves the gospel, it must have the gospel. 
And since it is so near to us, who better than 
we can be good Samaritans to this wounded 
and needy neighbor lying beside our way! 



POLITICAL EVOLUTION 



Looking back over nearly four hundred years, we find 
it difficult morally to justify the Conquest of Mexico, and 
yet we must, in fairness, give to the conquerors what little 
credit is their due. Cortes showed a measure of wisdom 
and policy at the first encounter with the natives. When 
he reached Cozumel, he learnt that one of his captains, 
Pedro de Alvarado, had entered the temples and stripped 
them of their ornaments and all things of value. Alva- 
rado's violent conduct had so terrified the simple people 
that they fled into the interior of the island. 

Cortes was exceedingly angry, for the act of his sub- 
ordinate was so contrary to the course he had determined 
upon. He reprimanded the captain publicly, made a care- 
ful explanation to the prisoners whom Alvarado had seized, 
gave them many presents, and sent them to explain matters 
to their friends. This humane policy succeeded ; the natives 
returned and amicable relations were established. 

Mexican civilization is known to be one of great antiquity. 
It was, too, of a high order even when the Spaniards first 
came in touch with it; although there are irrefutable 
evidences that it had been lowered from the higher plane 
it had attained in previous times. But of the earliest in- 
habitants of that country, practically nothing is known. 
The ruins which are scattered all over the land indicate 
conclusively, both by their size and by their character, 
that the work of those who precede by ages the Aztecs 
of Spanish days, was of an order which connotes high 
civilization. The unsolvable mystery which surrounds the 
prehistoric builders of those monuments is, even now, in- 
creased by the discovery, from time to time, of strange 
relics. — Joseph King Goodrich. 



CHAPTEE II 



POLITICAL EVOLUTION 



Three Periods. The romantic tinge which 
seems inseparable from all things Mexican 
throws its haze especially npon the history 
of the country. That history is divided into 
three great sections, the Indian or pre-Span- 
ish epoch, the colonial or viceregal period, 
lasting three centuries, and the period of in- 
dependence, measuring now practically a 
century. The Aztec-Toltec days belong 
rather to the sphere of romance than to that 
of history; the hundred years of political 
freedom have been a perfect kaleidoscope of 
change; and even the long and somnolent 
days of the viceroys have an atmosphere 
about them that is strangely fascinating. 

1. Early Indian Period 

Montezuma's Empire. A melancholy interest 
attaches to the ' ' empire ' ' of Montezuma. It 
was doubtless a much less complete and for- 
midable matter than some of the Spanish 

33 



34 Mexico To-Day 

chroniclers would have us believe. Other- 
wise it could scarcely have vanished so sud- 
denly and so completely. Yet it evidently 
was a fairly well-organized government, with 
a standing army, a system of revenue, and 
some of the elements of a civil service. 
Swift runners carried news over the moun- 
tains to and from the capital and kept the 
king in touch with the affairs of his realm. 
The capital itself was, for its time, a sub- 
stantially built city and fortress, with its 
temples, its palaces, and its barracks, much 
after the manner of well-ordered civiliza- 
tions. 

Government Centers. Besides the Aztec king- 
dom with Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City) for 
its capital, there was a center of government 
in Tlascala and another in the west among 
the Tarasco Indians. The Spaniards struck 
boldly at the heads of all these, reduced their 
chiefs to vassalage, swept their fragile or- 
ganization into oblivion, substituting the iron 
rule of the Spanish monarchy, and even ob- 
literated many of their thatched adobe 
^^ cities," scattering the inhabitants to moun- 
tain fastnesses or gathering them into other 
centers established by themselves. 

Conquest of Mexico. The story of the con- 
quest has been often told. Hernando Cor- 




Oopyriglit by Underwood and Underwood. N. Y. 

PREHISTOKIC REMAINS 

Calendar Stone Discovered 1790 

Hall of Mosaics 



Political Evolution 35 

tez, a Spanish soldier of fortune, effected a 
landing at Vera Cruz with a small body of 
troops. Cutting himself loose from superior 
officers in Cuba and Spain and with a com- 
mission granted by the municipality of Vera 
Cruz, a ^' city " lately founded by himself, 
he set out with four hundred infantry, fifteen 
cavalry and six small cannon, to take toll of 
the immense wealth which he had heard was 
stored up in the Aztec kingdom. The driv- 
ing force of all the Spanish expeditions in 
the sixteenth century was what the Latin 
poet calls the auri sacra fames, the accursed 
hunger for gold. The Indians could not un- 
derstand why the invaders set such stock by 
this metal. For them it was only one of sev- 
eral, useful for some things and rather 
pretty but of no special value. One of their 
chiefs once questioned a Spanish soldier 
about this. The grim old warrior said, 
* ^ Well, the truth is, all of us Europeans suf- 
fer from a secret and deadly disease for 
which gold is the only known remedy! '' 

How Victory Came. After heavy fighting in 
and about Mexico City (then surrounded by 
the waters of Lake Texcoco) Montezuma, who 
had fallen largely under the influence of the 
Spaniards, was killed, probably by his own 
people, if not by his own kin. His nephew, 



36 Mexico To-Day 

the youthful warrior Cuauhtemoc, later be- 
came the eleventh and last Aztec emperor. 
He was a brave and patriotic young man who 
drove the Spaniards out of the city and made 
the outcome of the invasion doubtful. But 
Cortez, reenforced from Vera Cruz and Cuba 
and taking advantage of the waters of the 
lake on which he placed several small ves- 
sels, completed the work of capturing the 
city in 1521. Cuauhtemoc was made pris- 
oner, cruelly tormented by having his feet 
tied over a fire to make him give up fan- 
cied treasures, and later put to death. So 
came to an end the first period of the coun- 
try's history. Nobody knows how or when 
it began. 

2. Period of Spain 

Viceregal Period Begins. After a few years 
of military government, under Cortez and 
others, a representative of the Spanish 
crown was sent out as viceroy, — the first one, 
Antonio de Mendoza, arriving in the fall of 
1535. In the two hundred and eighty-six 
years from that date to the establishment of 
independence, in 1821, there were sixty-four 
viceroys — some good, some bad. The term 
of office was irregular, usually from three to 
six years. The viceroys had practically un- 



Political. Evolution 37 

limited power, but tliey were subject to the 
whim of the Spanish king, who could depose 
and recall them at will. There was in Spain 
also a royal council called El Consejo de las 
Indias, and in Mexico an Audiencia or royal 
auditing committee. Both these bodies su- 
pervised the administration of the viceroys 
and served to ]f)ut a check on any exceptional 
tyranny or avarice. Nevertheless it seemed 
to be considered one of the perquisites of the 
position that the viceroy should enrich him- 
self. He was master of the financial admin- 
istration of a large and productive province. 
His salary, eighteen thousand dollars a year 
at first, was later placed at forty thousand 
dollars. By farming out the taxation, sell- 
ing special grants and privileges, and, in 
spite of constant surveillance, occasionally 
tampering with the bookkeeping, most of the 
viceroys managed, even after a brief term, to 
return rich to Spain. 

Bays of the Viceroys. There were of course 
developments in the national life of Mexico 
during the three centuries of the viceregal 
period, despite the overpowering monotony 
of it. Social and industrial relations gradu- 
ally adjusted themselves, the monastic and 
other religious organizations flourished im- 
mensely, a steady stream of wealth from 



38 Mexico To-Day 

mine and farm was poured into the lap of the 
mother country; cities and haciendas were 
established and mines opened; social lines 
were drawn and hardened into traditions; 
generations were born, flourished, and passed 
away. Yet through it all there was an as- 
tonishing dead level of uneventfulness. 
And this all went on for three full centuries. 
It scored some deep lines in the national 
character. It made the rich richer and the 
poor poorer. It bred a profound fatalism 
in the minds of the downtrodden natives. 
Their helplessness was so manifest and the 
power of their overlords so absolute that 
resistance was unthought of and submissive- 
ness became a habit of mind as well as of 
life. It will be well to keep this in mind 
when considering the third and most recent 
great period in Mexico's political develop- 
ment, a period which has not yet reached its 
final culmination. 

Influence of American and French Revolutions. 
The breaking away of the American colonies 
from England, followed by the profound up- 
heaval of the French revolution, infused even 
into the contented and submissive peoples of 
Spanish America a sense of unrest. The 
doctrine of the rights of man as against the 
divine right of kings gradually made its way 



Political Evolution 39 

throughout the world. In a general way no 
peoples are readier to be governed than those 
of Spanish America — for a certain similarity 
of national type pervades them all. They 
are inherently docile, and they have had long 
and rigorous training in obedience. Even 
yet, after a hundred years of independence, 
they prefer a government that is stern and 
unbending. It was not against the king as 
such, nor against monarchical forms of gov- 
ernment only, that they felt impelled to rise 
up. Religious and industrial conditions had 
become quite as intolerable as foreign po- 
litical domination. 

A Eepnblic the Ideal. Nothing in the history 
of Mexico is finer than the stubborn deter- 
mination with which, against inconceivable 
odds of discouragement, the people of that 
country have held on to their shining ideal 
of a popular government. Twice since get- 
ting clear of the Spanish throne they have 
had to throw down other thrones, set up on 
their own soil. Over and over their military 
leaders have arbitrarily set aside constitu- 
tion and law, and even their properly chosen 
presidents have again and again transformed 
themselves into dictators. Constitutional 
government has repeatedly been interrupted 
by revolutionary uprisings, putting soldiers 



40 Mexico To-Day 

instead of civilians in supreme command. 
Once foreign troops were sent to bolster np 
an imperial throne. Three separate consti- 
tutions have been promulgated. The educa- 
tion and training of the common people for 
the exercise of their citizenship have gone 
forward with excruciating slowness. Yet in 
all this long and weary struggle, measuring 
now a full century, the heart of Mexico has 
beat true to its ideal — a government of the 
people, for the people, by the people. And 
the friends of that country are glad to be- 
lieve that the ideal is nearer its realization 
now than ever before. 

How the Kevolution Began. When revolu- 
tionary groups began to be formed in Mex- 
ico, in the dawning years of the nineteenth 
century, not a few priests became members 
of them. To one that had its headquarters 
in the city of Queretaro belonged Miguel Hi- 
dalgo, parish priest of the village of Dolores, 
state of Guanajuato. Hidalgo had been edu- 
cated at the Colegio de San Nicolas, in 
Valladolid (now Morelia), the oldest college 
in America. He was a progressive and phil- 
anthropic man. As parish priest he had 
been much annoyed by the interference of 
the government with his efforts to teach his 
people horticulture. He found the restric- 



Political Evolutio:^' 41 

tions on raising grapes especially vexatious, 
having already taught his people silk-worm 
and bee culture, besides establishing an 
earthenware factory and otherwise advanc- 
ing their worldly interests while ministering 
to them in spiritual things. These experi- 
ences made him all the more active as an agi- 
tator against the government. 

The "Uprising of 1810. By the autumn of 
1810 the plans of the Queretaro group to 
which Hidalgo belonged had gone to the 
length of setting a date for an uprising 
against the Spanish government. But in Sep- 
tember one or two members of the band of 
conspirators, through motives which history 
does not disclose, gave information to the 
government of what was going on, together 
with the names of all concerned. 

The Famous Grito. Hearing of this rumor, 
the priest's loyal friends and supporters in 
the village were hastily sent for, and in the 
cool September dawn a group of men, humble 
laborers and farmers, whose names Mexican 
history proudly preserves, soon gathered 
about the curato or priest's house. The vil- 
lage prison was forced and the political 
prisoners set free. It was Sunday morning, 
and when the parish bell called to mass it 
rang out a call to liberty which echoes yet. 



42 Mexico To-Day 

For, when the people came, they learned what 
was going on, and the patriot-priest lifted up 
his ever-memorable '' grito " (cry) of" Viva 
la Independencia/ ' In a few weeks his fel- 
lows were dissipated and he a prisoner. 
Within less than a year he was tried, con- 
demned, and executed. Thus dramatically 
was launched the movement which, though it 
seemed soon to be blotted out in blood, never 
stopped till Mexico was free. 

3. Period of the Republic 

Freedom and Its Eesponsibilities. For ten 
years the revolutionary movement thus be- 
gun struggled on. At last it was successful 
more by the inefficiency of the Spanish gov- 
ernment, which had been shaken to its center 
by the Napoleonic intervention, than by any 
inherent force of its own. The story is too 
long to follow here, but by 1821, exactly three 
hundred years after the victory of Cortez, 
Mexico was once more free from Spain. A 
so-called empire under Iturbide was set up 
only to be thrown down by a storm of ad- 
verse public sentiment. In 1824 the first 
constitution, modeled largely upon that of 
the United States, was proclaimed. That it 
did not ^^ march '' was due chiefly to two 



Political Evolution 43 

fundamental difficulties: the ignorance and 
illiteracy of the people, and the persistent 
hostility of the Catholic Church to popular 
government. To these one is forced to add 
a third, namely, the unregulated ambitions 
of leading soldiers and politicians. During 
about fifty years, only two or three of over 
twenty changes of administration were made 
peaceably and in regular course by the ex- 
piration of terms of service. The rest were 
all more or less violent '^ revolutions." 

Republic of Texas. The one noteworthy in- 
cident of that period, breaking the long mo- 
notony of rather sordid revolutions and 
counter-revolutions, was the secession of 
Texas and the resulting war with the United 
States. The fertile plains of Texas, then a 
part of the Mexican state of Coahuila, had 
attracted many American settlers. The fre- 
quent changes in the Mexican government 
and the lax and often offensively military ad- 
ministration of public affairs, added to race 
antagonisms which were augmented by mu- 
tual ignorance of languages and customs, 
caused these colonists in Texas to chafe at 
their subjection to Mexico. In 1835 they or- 
ganized to assist the Mexican Liberals 
against Santa Anna, who had proclaimed 
himself dictator. The dictator himself led 



44 Mexico To-Day 

in the attempt to subdue this uprising. After 
a good deal of stubborn fighting the Mexican 
troops were defeated and driven out. The 
Texans then declared their independence, 
which was recognized by the United States. 
They organized a republic, and about ten 
years later the request of that republic to be 
admitted as a state of the American Union 
was granted. 

War Brought On. This was displeasing to 
Mexico, since some hope had still been cher- 
ished there of reconquering the rebellious 
province. In the meantime serious disagree- 
ment with Mexico had come up in connection 
with the settlement of American citizens in 
California. A boundary dispute, inherited 
along with the State of Texas, added to the 
irritation, Mexico claiming that the Nueces 
river was the agreed boundary between that 
country and Texas, and Texas claiming that 
it was the Rio Grande. There were Ameri- 
can troops in the disputed territory on ac- 
count of Indian depredations, and a clash be- 
tween them and the Mexican soldiers was the 
natural outcome. Thereupon war was for- 
mally declared by the American Government 
(1845). 

Result of the Fighting. The American ar- 
mies rapidly occupied Monterey, Vera Cruz, 



Political Evolution 45 

and the capital itself. There a treaty was 
concluded adverse to Mexico in most re- 
spects. By it California, New Mexico, and 
Arizona were added to the territory of the 
United States. 

Another Constitution. The liberal constitu- 
tion of 1824 had later, in a period of reaction, 
been abrogated by one more favorable to the 
conservative interests. But the long ascend- 
ancy of Santa Anna, lasting about twenty 
years, had served to set aside about all pre- 
tense of constitutional government. Lead- 
ing patriots were beginning to plan for a 
revival of government by the people. The 
popular general was finally discredited and 
banished. A constitutional convention was 
called, and a new constitution framed. It 
was again modeled largely upon that of th^ 
United States. Liberty of worship, the sep- 
aration of Church and state, and equality be- 
fore the law were guaranteed. About the 
same time a vigorous mortmain law, aimed 
at the immense real estate holdings of the 
Catholic orders, and a law abolishing special 
courts for ecclesiastics and soldiers were en- 
acted. The Church saw herself about to lose 
at a single blow the special legal privileges 
of her clergy and the great properties that 
enabled her to defy the popular will. 



46 Mexico To-Day 

A War for Eeforms. The outcome of the 
proclamation of the new constitution (Feb- 
ruary 5, 1857), and of the " Reform Laws ^' 
which followed it, was consequently a ter- 
rible civil war, between the Church party on 
the one side and the determined patriot lead- 
ers on the other. Benito Juarez, a full-blood 
Mixtec Indian, was at the time president of 
the Supreme Court. This was then an elect- 
ive position, carrying with it the succession 
to the presidency, there being no Vice Presi- 
dent. Ignacio Comonfort was President. 
His sympathies were with the liberal party, 
but in the disturbances which arose by reason 
of the promulgation of the liberal constitu- 
tion he was gradually drawn into an equivo- 
cal position. He tried to harmonize the dis- 
cordant elements and soon found himself 
abandoned by both. His position as Presi- 
dent became so difficult that he presently 
gave up the struggle, and, without the for- 
mality of resigning, left Mexico for the 
United States. The Conservatives had 
** pronounced,'^ adhering to General Zuloaga 
as President. The Liberals recognized 
Juarez as succeeding to the vacant post, un- 
der the constitution. 

The French Intervention. Following this 
war, which was terminated after lasting 



Political Evolutioit 47 

three years by a decisive victory for the 
Juarez government, came the episode of 
the French Intervention, as it is commonly 
described. Certain leaders of the Church 
party, whose tastes were for monarchy 
rather than republicanism, succeeded, with 
the help of Louis Napoleon of France, in per- 
suading Archduke Maximilian of Austria, a 
younger brother of Emperor Francis Joseph, 
that the people of Mexico desired him to 
come and set up there a ^' Catholic mon- 
archy." He was an intelligent and high- 
minded young man, happily married to the 
beautiful princess, Charlotte (Carlotta) of 
Belgium. He was naturally doubtful and 
even reluctant in regard to the strange pro- 
posal. His brother and his mother dis- 
suaded him. But the French king had in 
the meantime become embroiled with Mexico 
over a question concerning certain debts due 
French creditors by the Mexican govern- 
ment. Yv^ith no sufficient reason, and disre- 
garding terms of settlement satisfactory to 
both England and Spain, which governments 
had had similar claims. Napoleon landed 
troops in Mexico and began an attempt to 
humiliate the people and government there. 
Under the direction of his armies a so-called 
popular vote in favor of the coming of Maxi- 



48 Mexico To-Day 

milian was secured, and by means of tMs and 
by tbe promise on Napoleon's part of Frencb 
troops to sustain Ms throne, Maximilian was 
at last persuaded. Y/bat the motive of Na- 
poleon was is not clear, though as he made 
large loans to Maximilian for the setting up 
of his throne, it seems fair to suppose that 
he counted on getting control of the wealth 
of Mexico, a source of income which he prob- 
ably overestimated. 

Empire or Eepublic? So at length (June, 
1864) the new king and queen came to Mex- 
ico in great state. The French troops, aided 
by the rebellious conservatives, had driven 
President Juarez and his cabinet from his 
capital. In the north of the republic, how- 
ever, defended by the ragged, ill-fed patriot 
soldiers and sustained by the sturdy adher- 
ence of the members of his official family — 
^' los Inmaculados " ('^ the Spotless ") they 
came to be called — the little Indian President 
held out stubbornly, perpetuating the duly 
chosen government of the people. The in- 
troduction of a foreign ruler really worked 
to the strengthening of the patriot party. 
There were some people in Mexico who were 
pleased at the idea of having a king, and the 
capital was very gay. But the heart of the 
Mexicans at large rebelled at the thought of 



Political Evolution 49 

a monarcliy, especially under a foreign 
prince. 

Another War. The tide of war rolled back 
and forth. Gradually the resolute patriots 
evolved an army — an army of seasoned vet- 
erans it became. Meantime Napoleon had 
nearly got into trouble with the United States 
over his infringement upon the Monroe Doc- 
trine. While the American Civil War had 
been in progress it had so absorbed the atten- 
tion of the government at Washington that 
little notice had been given to the French 
king's course in Mexico. But after peace 
had been established at home, pressure be- 
gan to be brought at once for the retirement 
of the French soldiers from American soil. 
By this time, also, Napoleon was apparently 
glad of a pretext for taking this step. Mex- 
ico was not proving the treasure-house 
which he had anticipated. On the contrary, 
it was absorbing huge sums of money with 
but a poor prospect of returning even inter- 
est on the outlay. In brutal neglect of his 
promise to Maximilian the French king 
withdrew all his troops. The mercenaries 
which the Prince had provided, together 
with such Mexican soldiers as would espouse 
his cause, were all that he had left with 
which to resist the rising tide of armed pa- 



50 Mexico To-Day 

triotism, flomng in upon his infant throne 
from every side. After not a little vacilla- 
tion, going once so far as to write out Ms 
letter of abdication and start for Vera Cruz, 
Maximilian at last decided to remain and 
take his chances with his armies. Carlotta 
had gone to Europe to intercede with Napo- 
leon and had become there — in part by rea- 
son of his rough reception of her — a raving 
maniac. 

Unliappy Maximilian. Leaving Mexico City 
Maximihan joined his generals, who with the 
principal body of royal troops were in Quere- 
taro. There they made their last stand. 
The city was taken by the Liberals under 
General Escobedo, May, 1867, and Maxi- 
milian was captured. After a military trial 
he was executed, along with two Mexican 
generals who had led his armies, June 19, 
1867. 

Eeconstruction. So came to its close this 
strange and tragical episode of American 
history. Within a few weeks. President 
Juarez, acclaimed by the people, quietly re- 
entered the capital of the nation, and once 
more set up in due form republican govern- 
ment under the constitution. The proper 
time for a national election having already 
passed, one was held as soon as possible, and 



Political Evolution 51 

Juarez was again chosen President. That 
term, beginning with 1868, was a rather 
stormy one. The country was impoverished, 
brigands were everywhere, there was a large 
element of dissatisfied royalists among the 
people, and other ambitious liberal leaders 
were jealous and suspicious. This dissatis- 
faction was about to break out into open re- 
bellion after Juarez, as it was alleged, had 
rather forced his election for another term. 
But early in that period he died (July 18, 
1872), and the coming into the presidency of 
another, Don Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada, the 
president of the Supreme Court, quieted 
things down for the time. But when in 1875 
he also stood for election and, making rather 
free use of the federal machinery, was de- 
clared winner, the patience of some of the 
other liberal leaders was exhausted and there 
were ^' pronouncements " on every side. > 

The Coming of Diaz. The most notable of 
the opponents of Lerdo was a young general 
who had attained to much prominence be- 
cause of his prowess in the war with the 
French. He was a native of the same state 
with Juarez, and had in his youth read law 
in the office of that great man. But the logic 
of events, as well as his own tastes, had made 
a soldier rather than a lawyer of Porfirio 



52 Mexico To-Day 

Diaz. Not quite old enough to participate 
actively in the conflict with the United States 
in 1847, he was nevertheless as a boy of sev- 
enteen greatly stirred by that episode. Very 
soon afterward he somehow incurred the hos- 
tility of Santa Anna, then dictator, and was 
driven from his home to begin a career so 
incredibly adventurous that the plain narra- 
tive of it seems like a product of the imagina- 
tion. A little later, the war over the reform 
laws broke out, Diaz, of course, espousing 
the cause of his great countryman, Juarez, 
then President. This war was barely over 
when the French invasion made another de- 
mand on the patriotism of Mexican soldiers. 
Diaz plunged into this conflict with burning 
energy, and by his boldness, his military 
skill, and his personal daring soon became 
one of the trusted leaders of the Mexican ar- 
mies. He was a subordinate commander 
under General Zaragoza at Puebia on the 
famous Fifth of May (1862) when the 
French veterans were for the first time met 
by the ragged patriots of Mexico and de- 
cisively checked. Not quite five years later, 
April 2, 1867, as general in command he him- 
self captured this same city of Puebia, anni- 
hilating one of the armies of Maximilian and 
bringing the capital of the republic once 



Political EvoLUTioisr 53 

more into the power of the republican gov- 
ernment. 

A Successful TTprising. Diaz felt no such re- 
gard for Lerdo as had restrained him in the 
case of Juarez, and so, in 1875, with the prin- 
ciple of ^^ no reelection " as his motto, he 
raised the standard of revolt. His old com- 
rades flocked to him. Lerdo, who was not a 
soldier, was swept from his feet by the sud- 
den uprising and soon abandoned his post 
and took refuge in the United States. Diaz 
proclaimed an election and was made Presi- 
dent. His first term began with the year 
1876. He quickly proved himself as able as 
a ruler as he had been successful and bril- 
liant as a soldier. 

A Long Administration. The administration 
of President Diaz covered what may be called 
the modern period of Mexico's history. As 
an advocate of the principle of no reelection. 
General Diaz declined to be a candidate at 
the end of his first term. For the succeeding 
period, 1880-1884, accordingly. General Man- 
uel Gonzales was made President. The con- 
trast between his administration and that of 
^' Don Porfirio " was so sharp that before 
his stormy administration came to a close 
the demand for the return to office of his 
popular predecessor was general. To this 



54 Mexico To-Day 

demand Diaz acceded. In justification of Ms 
course it was urged that the ^' no reelec- 
tion '' declaration bore only on immediate 
succession, and was meant chiefly to correct 
the abuse of employing the federal ma- 
chinery to influence elections. But the four 
year term, from 1884 to 1888, proved alto- 
gether too short for the carrying out of all 
the beneficent and popular policies inaugu- 
rated by President Diaz. The feeling was 
practically universal at its end that he ought 
to continue in office. 

Diaz Policies. After some hesitation he con- 
sented. Four years later the situation was 
identical, and the doctrine of ^^ no reelec- 
tion ^' was finally set aside. Among the most 
vigorous and outspoken advocates of this 
were the foreign investors — merchants, manu- 
facturers, railway managers, and others — 
then resident in Mexico. Even during his 
first administration, General Diaz had openly 
bid for the investment in Mexico of foreign 
capital. To those of his people who were 
opposed to such a course he argued that 
the country was so impoverished by its 
long struggles, and its little remaining capi- 
tal was held so largely by people opposed 
to progress and in love with the old, reac- 
tionary order of things, that if Mexico's 




PORFIIIIO DIAZ 



Political Evolution 55 

vast resources were to be developed and 
her people made industrially comfortable 
and independent, it would have to be done 
largely by foreign money. And lie went right 
forward with his policy, opening wide the 
doors for capital. Subsidies were given for 
the building of railway lines — which was a 
military as well as an economic measure, — 
exemption from import duties was offered 
for factory machinery, relief from taxation 
during specified periods was guaranteed to 
productive industries, and foreigners were 
given ample protection for life and property 
throughout the entire republic. 

The President and Foreigners. The President 
was soon found to be especially sensitive in 
regard to religious persecution and anti-for- 
eign demonstrations of any kind. He felt 
that such things compromised the standing 
of his country in the eyes of the civilized 
world. He therefore insisted on perfect 
freedom of worship everywhere and on the 
proper protection of all foreigners. The 
mobs which here and there attacked Protes- 
tants were promptly and sternly suppressed. 
It is not amiss to recall this now, since much 
sentiment against General Diaz was exhibited 
in the United States and elsewhere, toward 
the end of his long tenure of power. The sup- 



56 Mexico To-Day 

pression of brigandage, the development of 
industries, especially by the introduction of 
foreign capital, the improvement of commu- 
nication, the abolishment of peonage, the 
standardizing of the currency, the encourage- 
ment of education, and the maintenance of 
liberty and of equality before the law are 
some of the things for which the administra- 
tion of Porfirio Diaz should receive credit. 

Not Yet a Republic. Nevertheless, many 
things remained undone. The constitution of 
1857 was not formally set aside. It provides 
for a government similar to that of the states 
and union of the United States, resting 
presumably upon an intelligent and compe- 
tent popular electorate. But where were the 
voters to be found in Mexico ? From sixty to 
eighty per cent, of the people were illiterate. 
An even larger proportion had been trained 
for four hundrd years to let others think and 
act for them. They knew nothing and cared 
nothing for public affairs. The state gov- 
ernments were incapable even of policing 
their respective territories. If allowed to be 
organized by local influences — elections, so- 
called, which usually meant the domination 
of a small coterie of rich landowners or un- 
scrupulous soldiers — they speedily became a 
menace to the central government or an en- 



Political Evolution- 57 

gine for the oppression of the people. Little 
by little, therefore, the stern military atmos- 
phere which pervaded the federal adminis- 
tration extended itself to the state govern- 
ments, and these became gradually no more 
than departments of the central administra- 
tion. 

Taxation and Land Question. The federal 
government found itself unable to solve 
the problems of taxation and land ten- 
ure. Efforts were repeatedly made to put 
a rate of taxation upon the immense hold- 
ings of land that would make them un- 
profitable and thus open them up for settle- 
ment by small farmers. But these efforts 
failed. The federal constitution proved an 
obstacle here, for it puts matters of taxation 
into the hands of the state governments, and 
these were invariably in the hands of the 
large landowners. Taxation has in conse- 
quence continued to be inequitable and the 
land is still held in huge haciendas, many of 
them nothing like so well improved as they 
should be. 

Growing Dissatisfaction. Some of the men in 
the later cabinets of President Diaz, and a 
number of those acting as state governors 
under his patronage, have been men of great 
wealth. They are landholders on a large 



58 Mexico To-Day 

scale, and many of them have aroused resent- 
ment by their management of the labor prob- 
lem. In the case of one or two, peonage, in 
its old barbarous form, has been alleged, 
along with the charge that they have used 
the machinery of the federal government — 
soldiers, railways, and other agencies — for 
securing and holding the unwilling and un- 
happy laborers who toil on their immense 
haciendas. Favoritism was also shown to 
corporations and enterprises in which these 
members of the Diaz government or their 
friends were directly interested. 

The People Restless. The very improvement 
in the economic condition of the laboring 
classes made the people restless. For cen- 
turies they had expected nothing and had 
been resigned in a dull way to their hard lot. 
Now at last better things began to seem pos- 
sible. Wages had risen. Their children 
had schools to attend. Their wants com- 
menced to multiply. They began to question 
and to investigate. It seemed to them espe- 
cially inexplicable that a few men should 
have a great deal more land than they needed 
or could improve, while others by the score 
were at hand, wanting land, ready to till it, 
l)nt unable to get hold of it. Equally puz- 
zling was the difference which they began to 



Political Evolution 59 

note between the proportionate burden of 
taxation boTne by the rich and the poor. 
The poor man was taxed heavily, the rich 
man lightly. This, as we have seen, was 
largely a matter of state legislation, not fed- 
eral; but the people, who knew no ruler ex- 
cept '' Don Porfirio, " looked to him for 
everything and blamed him for what went 
wrong or failed to go right. 

Hostility to Chnrcli Influence. Another source 
of irritation, more profound and widespread 
than any outsider could suspect or discover, 
because it operated so secretly, was the grow- 
ing power, during the last decade especially, 
of the Catholic Church. The leaders of that 
Church, secular clergy ^ and Jesuits working 
together, made a special point of keeping in 
touch with Mrs. Diaz, a devout and sprightly 
woman, many years younger than her hus- 
band. The old General's antagonism to 
ecclesiastical influence in politics was well 
known. He knew who had caused the bloody 
war over the Laws of Reform and who had 
later brought on the French Intervention 
with its long list of woes. He had fought his 
way through both those wars. He under- 
stood better than his own countrymen of a 

1 Secular clergy are those not separated from the world by 
monastic vows or rules ; for example, parish priests. 



60 Mexico To-Day 

later generation the ambitions designs of the 
clergy in regard to matters of civil govern- 
ment. When asked on one occasion not 
many years ago by a company of Protestant 
missionaries whether the rigid laws as to the 
holding of real estate by chnrches would not 
some time be relaxed, he shook his head. 
^ ' It would be all well enough as concerns you 
gentlemen," he replied, ^' but we have to be 
thinking of the clergy {el clero) ; we have 
had experience with them — they are not sat- 
isfied to manage their Church; they want to 
run the government too." 

Disregard of Keform Laws. But either be- 
cause he himself relaxed somewhat in his 
attitude as old age came on, or taking advan- 
tage of him by acting without his knowledge, 
some who were of his official family began to 
show great deference to the Church authori- 
ties. These, of course, promptly took ad- 
vantage of it. Convents and monasteries 
were conducted in defiance of the law. Church 
schools were subsidized from public funds, 
public processions were brought out, unmo- 
lested by the police, who when taxed with 
their neglect shrugged their shoulders and 
hinted of orders from ^' higher up." 

Widespread Uneasiness. The sense of un- 
easiness which all this inspired can only be^ 



Political Evolution" 61 

comprehended by one who has entered inti- 
mately into the life of the Mexican people, 
and has come to understand how deeply dis- 
trustful they are of Catholic influence in pub- 
lic affairs. The men of the country are a unit 
in resenting such interference and almost 
equally unanimous in pronouncing adversely 
on the moral character and standing of the 
priests. The sense of apprehension lest 
through the inattention of an old man whom 
personally they still loved and admired, the 
nightmare of ecclesiastical oppression should 
once more be fastened upon their country, 
became so acute that they were willing to de- 
mand that this same honored and venerable 
ruler go into exile rather than run the risk. 
Madero Revolution. Such were the elements 
that led up to and entered into the revolution 
of 1911. It was not in any proper sense a 
military rebellion. The federal army had 
dwindled down to a shell — thanks to dis- 
honest officers and the long peace which had 
made an army superfluous. The insurgents, 
on the other hand, mustered but a few hun- 
dred poorly armed and inexperienced re- 
cruits, and not a single battle worthy the 
name was fought. Diaz was not driven from 
the presidency and from the country at the 
point of the bayonet. But finding to his as- 



62 Mexico To-Day 

tonishment that popular dissatisfaction with 
his administration and demand for his retire- 
ment were general, in considerable aniioy- 
ance, bnt relieved to be rid of the burdens of 
his office — which had never been for him a 
sinecure — he resigned the presidency, and, 
upon the insistence of Madero, who was still 
afraid of him, left the country. 

A Successor to Diaz. It had been evident to 
any student of Mexico during the Diaz re- 
gime, and to none more clearly than to Diaz 
himself, who knows that country and its peo- 
ple better than any other living man, that the 
great problem of that administration was the 
providing of a competent successor. The 
next president should not be so autocratic as 
Diaz had been — it would not be necessary. 
Neither must he go too far in the other direc- 
tion. The moment the people felt that the 
central government had a weak hand, brig- 
andage and insurrection would break out 
everywhere. It was especially doubted 
whether a civilian would be equal to the 
situation. On the other hand, no soldier 
was at hand who was able to work harmoni- 
ously with the President. His old compan- 
ions in arms against the French, of nearly 
fifty years before, were gone. One or two 
men of a younger generation were tested, but 



Political Evolution" 63 

proved intractable. The most influential 
man in the cabinet of Diaz was Mr. Liman- 
tour, Secretary of the Treasury. He was 
solicited more than once to allow his name 
to be put before the people for the presi- 
dency, but knowing too well how thorny a 
road it would be for a civilian, declined. 

Madero's Troubles. The disastrous experi- 
ence of Mr. Madero supplies melancholy 
proof of the prudence of Mr. Limantour. 
Not himself a soldier, Madero failed com- 
pletely to secure a military establishment 
capable of inspiring respect. The army of 
President Diaz had, as we have seen, largely 
disintegrated. Toward the end of his ad- 
ministration and when the final emergency 
arose, the venerable President had nomi- 
nally an establishment totaling some 36,000 
soldiers. Of these only about 13,000 could 
be accounted for. In place of the rest there 
were only padded rolls. After the sudden 
overturning of his government there was, of 
course, mutual distrust between those who 
had been his soldiers and the man who had 
been most active in opposing him and who 
later succeeded him in office. As a conse- 
quence of this distrust the old military or- 
ganization — in the matter of its personnel, 
at least — practically disappeared. A few 



64 Mexico To-Day 

officers continued on tlie active list, but 
mostly the subordinates of General Diaz 
went out with him. 

Without an Army. On the other hand there 
was virtually no army resulting from the in- 
surgent movement under Madero. A con- 
siderable collection of volunteers remained, 
but their officers were mostly without mili- 
tary experience or training, and the cam- 
paigns through which they and the men had 
passed were so largely bloodless that they 
had not greatly helped to make them soldiers. 
And allowing all that may be asked for that 
army as an army, it was lost to Madero by 
the defection of Orozco. Practically all of 
the efficient troops followed this popular 
leader into insurrection against the duly 
elected head of the republic. This large 
body of insurgents, who soon overran the 
northern part of the country, gave encour- 
agement to the dissatisfied groups in the 
south, especially those under Zapata, and the 
position of the Madero government at once 
became precarious. The fact that there 
were two large areas of the country in rebel- 
lion and that the government was powerless 
to suppress disorder soon filtered through 
even the remote and mountainous sections 
where men can always be found who would 



Political Evolution- 65 

rather live by pillage than by work. The re- 
sult was a widespread outbreak of brigandage. 
The Mexican Bandit. Highway robbery has 
been a persistent phenomenon of Mexican 
life throughout the entire history of the 
country. There is doubtless a very small 
percentage of the population which is predis- 
posed to this manner of life — not more, per- 
haps, than would be found in other lands. 
But circumstances have greatly favored the' 
operations of these few. The country itself, 
by reason of its topography and its peculiar 
products, offers much encouragement. The 
wide dry plains and the rugged and almost 
equally dry mountain fastnesses are the de- 
spair of officers of the law, the more so as 
such officers are usually strangers to the 
locality, representing the distant central gov- 
ernment. Local police regulations have 
never been developed in Mexico to a state of 
real efficiency. And as for the products of 
the country, the wealth of the farming opera- 
tions is gathered and stored in great hacien- 
das, where robbers, if successful in breaking 
in, can usually make rich hauls. Then there 
are the mines. Many of these, because of 
their remoteness, have to refine their prod- 
ucts before transporting them out, and all 
require the shipment in of much cash for 



66 Mexico To-Day 

their payrolls. This precious metal and 
cash in transport offer a constant temptation 
to the freebooter. 

Calls Out Sympathy. The highwayman is, 
moreover, the object of widespread sympa- 
thy and admiration. He deals out his easy 
wealth with a lavish hand among the poor 
peasants who provide him occasional shelter 
and food. He conciliates even the Church, 
till he is by it reproved but gently. All this 
has tended to a sort of easy tolerance of the 
business and the men who engage in it. 
Then there is a profound and growing dis- 
satisfaction with their hard lot among the 
poor of Mexico. So when they see one of 
their own class break over by force and begin 
to prey on the rich, who have long preyed on 
them, they are apt secretly to rejoice in it. 

Ever-present Land Question. To this criminal 
brigandage, which soon became the pest of 
the Madero government, as it had been of 
many a previous administration, was added a 
great volume of genuine discontent, a discon- 
tent which sent out many armed peasants to 
stand against the- government for what they 
conceived to be their rights. The well- 
founded dissatisfaction of these people arose 
from Mexico's greatest problem, already 
mentioned, the land question. All the land 



Political Evolution" 67 

of that country is held by a very few people 
and nearly all of it in very large bodies. It 
has been estimated that not over a thousand 
families own all the land in the entire repub- 
lic. Some of these holdings are enormous. 
They are measured in sitios, an old Spanish 
unit of a league square, that is, nine square 
miles. One man owns enough of these sitios 
to cover practically half of the largest state 
in Mexico. One may travel for hours on the 
railway train without crossing the boundary 
of one of these huge haciendas. And the 
worst feature of the situation is that so large 
a proportion of these great holdings remains 
unimproved. These lands are also taxed at 
a very low rate, especially the unimproved 
sections. 

Indian Lands. In recent years lumber and 
mining syndicates, many of them involving 
foreign capital, have sought, and by various 
means have obtained, possession of much 
land which had been community holdings of 
Indian villages. The Indians have always 
preferred to retain the system of village 
communes in existence before the advent of 
the Spaniards, a preference which the Span- 
ish government wisely respected. These 
communal lands, lying mostly in the moun- 
tains — for the white man long ago crowded 



68 Mexico To-Day 

Ms red brother out of the arable plains — are 
largely unfit for cultivation, and are kept for 
common pasturage and a fuel supply. But 
their wealth of timber, and in some instances 
of minerals, has not escaped the eye of the 
prospector and lumber ^^ cruiser." In many 
cases and in many places the poor Indians 
have been cheated and exploited. This form 
of abuse greatly discredited the later years 
of the Diaz administration. The venerable 
President himself was doubtless kept in ig- 
norance of what was going on, but men con- 
nected with Ms government trafficked in con- 
cessions and bargains, and the power of that 
government was employed to evict and cow 
the helpless villagers. 

Question of Subdivision. Mr. Madero, in the 
course of his idealistic discussions of Mex- 
ico's situation, often declared that the land 
belonged to the people and that they ought 
to have it. After he was triumphantly 
elected President, the people, in their simple 
way, expected that lands would immediately 
be turned over to them. The Indians, espe- 
cially, counted on the adjustment of all their 
claims, both just and imaginary. The situa- 
tion was most unhappy for the new Presi- 
dent. In Mexico, as elsewhere, property 
rights are strongly intrenched behind the 



Political Evolutioi^ 69 

law. The large land holders had no thought 
of yielding to idealistic considerations and 
dividing up their property. The same thing 
was true of the mining and lumber corpora- 
tions. Madero has been sharply criticized 
because he at least did not carry out his 
theories and divide up his own extensive 
lands. As a younger member of a large and 
somewhat patriarchal family it was probably 
not possible for him to do this, and in any 
event, the final solution of the difficulty is 
not to be sought in voluntary philanthropy 
of this kind. Mr. Madero probably never 
expected his statements of abstract consid- 
erations to be taken as promises. It was 
characteristic of the childlike thinking of 
the untutored Indians, however, that they 
should assume that all their troubles would 
end as soon as they had for President a man 
who wished to see them ended. When noth- 
ing was done to restore their lands, there- 
fore, they became infuriated and broke into 
wild disorders. The farm laborers on the 
great estates s^nnpathized with them, and 
the agitation against the Madero govern- 
ment became general. The President soon 
lost the popularity that had swept him into 
office. In connection with the previous revo- 
lution, as well as in consequence of the long 



70 Mexico To-Day 

period of quiet and public confidence, fire- 
arms had come to be more generally owned 
than ever before in Mexico. Every man who 
could get hold of a rifle set out to right his 
own wrongs, and the country was filled with 
'' revolutionists." 

The People Not Military. Yet at this very 
time it proved impossible for President Ma- 
dero to organize an efficient army. The 
chief reason was the disinclination of the 
Mexicans to engage in military service. The 
President doubled the wages of the common 
soldier, making them more than those of the 
common laborer, but the lists did not fill up. 
Such battalions as he took over from the 
revolutionary organizations already existing 
continually proved disloyal, while, as a mat- 
ter of course, he dared not avail himself of 
the fragments that remained of the old Diaz 
army. His situation was really tragic. The 
night that the insurrection broke out in Mex- 
ico City (February 9, 1913), he traveled in 
an automobile, over a road that had been for 
some time almost abandoned because of high- 
waymen, seventy-five miles to Cuernavaca, 
to bring up personally a small body of only 
twelve hundred soldiers — state militia, most 
of them — in whom he had confidence. And 
after all, in less than ten days from that time 



Political. Evolution* 71 

lie had been betrayed by his own generals 
and was a prisoner in his own capital. 

Huerta Administration. At the time of this 
writing (April, 1913) the government of 
President Huerta is in serious straits be- 
cause of this same peculiarity of the Mexi- 
can. The people of that country are not 
warlike in their tastes. They do not like 
military service. It is hard to provide an 
army. They were dissatisfied with the gov- 
ernment of Madero because it did not have 
a strong hand for robbers and because their 
troubles about land and taxation were not 
remedied. They will band together for up- 
risings, as they are now doing again, but 
they do not like to settle down to the busi- 
ness of fighting. President Huerta gave the 
friends of Madero an excellent pretext by his 
alleged cruelty in permitting or ordering the 
death of Madero and of Suarez. That was 
indeed an inexcusable blunder. The fact 
also that he seized the government by a mili- 
tary coup now weakens his hold upon it. 
The rebellion against him led by Governor 
Carranza, of Coahuila, ably seconded by 
strong leaders in the far northwest and abet- 
ted by the intransigent attitude of Zapata in 
the south, has placed him in a most precari- 
ous situation. In addition to his difficulty of 



72 Mexico To-Day 

recruiting soldiers at home is the even more 
serious one of borrowing money abroad. His 
coffers are empty, and the failure of foreign 
governments to recognize him as legitimately 
the head of the Mexican government makes 
it practically impossible for him to secure a 
loan in any of the money markets of the 
world. It seems improbable that he will be 
able to hold his seat much longer. 



EELIGIONS, ANCIENT AND MODERN 



A few of the Aztec gods blossomed out as Christian saints 
soon after the Conquest through the ingenious schemes of 
the early priests, who adopted this method to make the 
new religion accepted. They brought with them into the 
Koman Church the particular characteristics and powers 
Mdiich they were credited with as pagan gods. For ex- 
ample, the goddess of the rains, who was much worshiped 
in the regions of little rain, may be recognized in Our 
Lady of the Mists, of the Mexican Church, who is appealed 
to for the much-needed rain, and is believed to have the 
same power that the old Aztec or Toltec gods were sup- 
posed to have. In many places there are shrines erected 
to these saints of the Church, and it has been proven that, 
in most instances, in Aztec times, temples existed on the 
same spots dedicated to the goddess of the rains or mists. 
— Nevin 0. Winter. 

A daily paper of Mexico City contained on March 30, 
1913, a "story" by one of its reporters, which illustrates 
the superstition of the poorer people. Following a throng of 
men and women who were saying to each other, " Have 
you seen it ? " " They say it is wonderful," etc., the re- 
porter found his way to the open court of a cheap tene- 
ment-house, which was packed with people. They were 
chattering and crowding and calling to each other, and 
those inside seemed to be praying. After much vigorous 
pushing and elbowing, he at last got past the doorway 
and into the court itself. The eyes of all were fastened 
on a large eucalyptus tree growing in the court (a sort of 
gum tree from Australia which flourishes amazingly in 
Mexico ) . On the side of the tree was a white spot which 
all declared was an apparition of the " Divine Face " ( El 
Divino Rostro) , that is, the face of Christ wearing the 
crown of thorns, as usually represented on crucifixes. Many 
were crossing themselves and muttering prayers. 

The reporter took the trouble to look up and interview 
the owner of the house. He was found in a state of con- 
siderable annoyance. " I was making some repairs and 
had to cut off a large branch of this tree. Now these 
idiotic people are mobbing the house because they fancy 
that that white scar is a miracle." The next day he made 
an end to the " miracle " by tying a cloth around the 
trunk in such a way as to conceal the scar. The people 
after that let him and his house ^lone. 



CHAPTER III 

RELIGIONS, ANCIENT AND MODEEN 

1. Ancient Religions 

Early Eeligious Ideas. Mexicans may be de- 
scribed in the words of Panl concerning tbe 
Athenians as ^^ in all things very religious." 
In the confused turmoil of tradition and his- 
tory upon which we must depend for our 
knowledge of their life before the coming of 
the Spanish soldiers, the gods, the priests, 
the temples, and the worship stand out more 
distinctly than any other phase of life. And 
this has been characteristic of the people 
ever since. The Mayas had their peculiar 
deities, the Toltecs theirs; while the Chichi- 
mecs, Aztecs, Tarascos, and the rest were 
not less liberally provided. In most of the 
tribes there seem to have been vague intima- 
tions of a spiritual creator and supreme god, 
ideas always overlaid in practise by the at- 
tention paid to special gods and goddesses. 
An equally vague nature-worship, in which 
the sun and the fertile earth were adored, 
had its influence among the more strictly 

75 



76 Mexico To-Day 

agricultural tribes. The Tarascos liad a 
goddess whom they worshiped with offerings 
of the produce of their lands. They also 
looked upon the clouds as divine, and placed 
offerings to them in the warm springs, which 
from their vapors they believed to be parents 
of the clouds. Competent authorities iden- 
tify their goddess of fertility with the rain. 
Such a conception might easily arise in a 
country where the difference between a fam- 
ine year and one of plenty is a question of 
a little more or less of rainfall. 

Heligion of the Toltecs. The deities of the 
Mayas are found sculptured among the ruins 
of the ancient cities of Yucatan and the Isth- 
mus of Tehuantepec. The Maya occupancy 
of the Valley of Mexico and adjacent re- 
gions — if there was such an occupancy — 
w^as followed by that of the Toltecs. This 
was the name later given to a people of 
uncertain origin from one of their cities, 
Tollan or Tula. Their huge temple pyra- 
mids remain to this day at Cholula, Teoti- 
huacan, and elsewhere. The Chichimecs 
and Aztecs who came after them doubt- 
less owed much of their civilization, includ- 
ing no little of their religious beliefs, to this 
earlier people. Quetzalcoatl, the '' Fair 
God,'' was a Toltec deity, described as hav- 



EeLIGIONS, AlTCIENT AND MODERN 77 

ing blue eyes, fair hair, and a beard. The 
Toltecs themselves may have been blondes, 
at least fair skins and hair were not unknown 
among them. Individuals with light hair 
and eyes are still found among the Mayas. 
The l^oltecs called one of their gods Teocall, 
and from that their temples were teocailis. 
This name, some believe, was applied to the 
supreme god. At any rate, the word for 
temple, teocalli, was still in use at the time 
of the conquest. 

Temples and Pyramids. Various writers of 
that period give us verbal accounts of the 
teocalli, especially the great one in the city 
of Mexico. There remain a few rude draw- 
ings of it, but no correct plan or picture. 
The old pyramids of the Toltecs were then 
already discarded and overgrown with 
plants. Two of the most remarkable of 
these may yet be seen at San Juan Teotihua- 
can, about an hour eastward by train from 
Mexico City. Until recently they had the 
appearance of ordinary hills sparsely cov- 
ered with cactus and thorny shrubs. But a 
few years ago the government of Mexico had 
a good deal of work done in exploring and 
restoring them. One is supposed to have 
been dedicated to the sun, the other to the 
moon. Both are immense piles of stone and 



78 Mexico To-Day 

adobe, and between and about them was an 
elaborate system of walks and courts and 
shrines carefully laid out and much of it 
paved with cement, of which many traces yet 
remain. The pyramid of the sun is about 
the same size at the base as Cheops, the great 
pyramid of Egypt, — two hundred and thirty- 
two by two hundred and twenty-four meters, 
or about seven hundred and sixty by seven 
hundred and thirty feet. The pyramid of 
the moon is a little smaller. Both are astro- 
nomically adjusted. Even a casual exam- 
ination of them will impress the visitor that 
the people who built them set much store by 
their religion. 

Bestrnctiveness of the Conquerors. The indus- 
try of the early Spanish priests and govern- 
ors in destroying all records of the history 
and religion of the native Mexicans has be- 
queathed to later students many difficult 
problems. As much as possible must be 
made out of architectural remains, sculp- 
tures, and the scanty records which escaped 
the destroying hands of the zealous priests. 
There were so many successive migrations of 
peoples, each with religious peculiarities of 
its own, and the remains of the homes and 
shrines of these successive tribes are now so 
heaped one upon the other that, in the ab- 



EeLIGIONS, AlTCIENT AlTD MODEKN 79 

sence of writing, tiiey are extremely hard to 
make out. Two or three conclusions seem to 
be pretty well established. First, the teocal- 
lis, built of stone or adobe, were the lineal de- 
scendants of mounds and pyramids and pre- 
served the pyramidal form. Secondly, there 
was a great inclination to make use of human 
sacrifices, the heart of a living victim being 
thought especially pleasing as an offering to 
the gods. Thirdly, whatever of spiritual il- 
lumination the native religion may have had 
at an earlier time was largely lost by the 
time of the invasion. At that time Coaberi, 
Coaxalcoatl, Huitzilopochtli were the favo- 
rite gods, the first a Tarascan deity, the sec- 
ond a Toltec, the third an Aztec or Chichimec. 
To each of these human sacrifices were of- 
fered, to all in practically the same manner. 
But this kind of offering was thought espe- 
cially pleasing to the god of war, Huitzilo- 
pochtli. In connection with these sacrifices 
there was a measure of cannibalism, more 
apparently as a religious rite than because 
the Mexicans cared for human flesh as food. 
Their worship was also celebrated with 
dances, chants, garlands of flowers, and occa- 
sionally heavy drinking. 

Human Sacrifice an Exception. One of the 
huge stones on which human beings were sac- 



80 Mexico To-Day 

riiiced is still preserved in the National Mu- 
seum of Mexico. The victims were placed 
face upward on the stone, their heads strained 
back by a heavy stone yoke placed around the 
neck, and the chest laid open by a sharp flint 
or obsidian knife. The heart was torn out 
warm and palpitating and oifered before the 
bloody and ugly god, and the dead body was 
thrown over the parapet of the high temple. 
In spite of this barbarous phase of it, the 
religion of the Mexicans was not a savage or 
cruel religion. They argued with the Span- 
iards that it really made no difference how 
they killed their enemies, whether on the field 
of battle or on the altar of their god. This 
reasoning is not very sound, but the conten- 
tion was pertinent as applied to the Span- 
iards, who with their superior arms made 
vast slaughter of the poor, half-naked Indians. 
Crucifix Forms Explained. The figures of the 
cross found in various ruins of jjrehistoric 
Mexico occasioned for a long time much 
speculation. They seem to be due to two 
circumstances. A few of them are efforts to 
reproduce the favorite symbol of the Chris- 
tians; these, of course, date from the time 
of the conquest. The others are representa- 
tions of certain forms of torture employed 
by the natives. The criminal or prisoner 



Eeligions, Ancient and Modern 81 

was staked or bound to a frame or to the 
ground^ with the four limbs extended, and 
was then slowly executed or, on occasion, al- 
lowed to die from exposure. 

2. Early Roman Catholicism 

Missionary Work of the Spaniards. The Span- 
iards after their arrival gave themselves 
with tremendous zeal to the ^' conversion " 
of the natives. Indeed, the extension of the 
'' Christian " domain was one of the pre- 
texts urged for the conquest. As soon as the 
mainland of America was discovered there 
was a scramble to take possession of it. 
Spain and Portugal were about to come to 
blows when the Pope of Rome intervened. 
He ordained that a line should be drawn, 
north and south, from pole to pole running 
three hundred and seventy miles west of the 
Azores islands. The Portuguese were given 
unlimited sway over all the land discovered 
east of that line, the Spanish over all west. 
In the framing of this decree it is needless 
to say that the people already living in the 
new world were neither consulted nor consid- 
ered. Observance of this arbitrary line, 
which was accepted by both the Christian 
kings involved in the dispute, gave Brazil to 



82 Mexico To-Day 

Portugal and practically all the rest of 
America to Spain. Of course nobody knew 
tlien (1494) how big America was. The 
Pope, Alexander VI, assumed in this decree 
to confirm such lands as fell to the Spaniards 
to Ferdinand and Isabella in every particu- 
lar and for all time. '' The authority was to 
be unlimited and to cover all things, temporal 
and spiritual ; the bodies and souls, the prop- 
erty and services of the conquered natives 
were to be their peculiar inheritance, and 
that of their successors forever.'^ This re- 
markable title-deed — remarkable especially 
in that the man who made it had himself no 
rights in the case — was confirmed to the 
Spanish monarchs by Alexander's successor, 
Julius II. By that time the immensity of 
the domain began to be appreciated. This 
grant of imaginary rights was taken in all 
seriousness by the Spanish kings, who ex- 
acted a strict account from every adventurer 
who succeeded in overrunning new territory. 
In return they undertook to reduce all these 
new lands to subjection to the Pope. The 
example of Mohammedanism and the fever 
of the Crusades had poisoned the minds of 
Christians. They began to believe that the 
kingdom of God could be extended by the 
sword. 



Eeligions, Ancient and Modern 83 

Conversion Too Rapid, Priests and mission- 
aries followed or accompanied the armies of 
conquest in the new world. In Mexico they 
found an immense field. The country was 
well populated. In the centers, about the 
Valley of Mexico, especially, there were im- 
mense masses of people. Without accepting 
the estimates of Cortez and his followers, 
which are, of course, only the rough guesses 
of excited men, it is nevertheless quite safe 
to believe that the empire of Montezuma em- 
braced millions of people, and that in and 
about the capital city there were hundreds of 
thousands. Once these people had been van- 
quished and overawed in battle, by those 
whom they probably looked upon as super- 
human, they were in a mood to accept about 
anything which the conquerors proposed. 
One of the tilings immediately proposed was 
baptism. The Catholic doctrine of bap- 
tismal regeneration was applied by the 
priests and soldiers of that period in its 
baldest, most literal meaning. They seem 
really to have believed that to have the In- 
dians submit to baptism was to convert them. 
Hence they did not hesitate at rather rough 
measures to get them to submit. These were 
usually not necessary, however, for the Mexi- 
cans saw nothing objectionable in the cere- 



84 Mexico To-Day 

mony. Nothing else was required of them, 
and the sprinkling was soon over. The 
priests did prodigies. One is said to have 
baptized in a single day as many as ^ve 
thousand ^^ converts/^ continuing till he was 
so tired that he could not lift his hands. The 
authorities of the Church reported that ^^ in 
a few years after the reduction of the Mexi- 
can empire the sacrament of baptism was 
administered to more than four millions." 
On this a judicious observer comments: 
" Proselytes adopted with such inconsid- 
erate haste, and who were neither instructed 
in the nature of the tenets to which it was 
supposed they had given assent, nor taught 
the absurdity of those which they were re- 
quired to relinquish, retained their venera- 
tion for their ancient superstitions in full 
force." 

Superstitions Eetained. The testimony of 
Baron Humboldt, who visited Mexico three 
hundred years later, proves this : ' ' The in- 
troduction of the Romish religion had no 
other effect upon the Mexicans than to sub- 
stitute new ceremonies and symbols for the 
rites of a sanguinary worship. Dogma has 
not succeeded dogma but only ceremony to 
ceremony. I have seen them, naked and 
adorned with tinkling bells, perform savage 



Eeligions, Ancient and Modern 85 

dances around the altar while a monk of St. 
Francis elevated the host.'' 

A Catholic Critic. How persistent were 
these customs may be seen further in the 
writings of Abbe Domenech, whose book was 
published as late as 1867. He had gone to 
Mexico as chaplain of the French expedi- 
tionary forces sent to support Maximilian. 
After the troops had been recalled, he was 
required to travel through Mexico and report 
on its religious and moral condition. The 
results of that investigation he incorporated 
in a book, published in Paris (1867), which 
he called Le Mexique tel Qu'el Est, or Mexico 
as It Is. Since Domenech was himself a 
Catholic, his account of the Catholicism 
of the Mexicans may be looked upon as 
reliable. He says : ' ^ It would require vol- 
umes to relate the Indian superstitions of an 
idolatrous character which exist to this day. 
For want of serious instruction you find in 
the Catholicism of the Indians numerous re- 
mains of the old Aztec paganism." In an- 
other place he records these observations : 
'^ The idolatrous character of Mexican 
Catholicism is a fact well known to all trav- 
elers. The worship of saints and madonnas 
so absorbs the devotion of the people that 
little time is left to think about God. Ke- 



86 Mexico To-Day 

ligious ceremonies are performed with a 
most lamentable indifference and want of 
decorum. The Indians go to hear mass with 
their poultry and vegetables which they are 
carrying to market. I have had to abandon 
the Cathedral of Mexico, where I used to go 
every morning, because I could not collect 
my thoughts there. The gobble of the tur- 
keys, the crowing of cocks, the barking of 
dogs, the mewing of cats, the chirping of 
birds in their nests in the ceiling, and the flea 
bites rendered meditation impossible to me, 
unaccustomed to live in such a menagerie. 
. . . One day I was present at an Indian 
dance, celebrated in honor of the patron saint 
of the village. Twenty-four boys and girls 
were dancing in the church, in the presence 
of the priest. An Indian, with his face con- 
cealed under a mask of an imaginary divinity 
resembling the devil, with horns and claws, 
was directing the figures of the dance, which 
reminded me of that of the redskins. I re- 
marked to the priest, who, for all that, was 
an excellent priest, that it was very incon- 
gruous to permit such a frolic in a church. 

'' ' The old customs,' he replied, 'are re- 
spectable; it is well to preserve them, only 
taking care that they do not degenerate into 
orgies.' " 



EeLIGIONS, AJnTCIENT AlTD MODEKN 87 

An Exchange of Deities. The Indians had 
indeed merely exchanged their indigenous 
superstitions for new and foreign ones. 
The Virgin Mary was promptly identified 
with Mother Earth (Nana Curaperi), who 
had long been a favorite deity among an ag- 
ricultural people. The periodic fiestas of 
the Church were celebrated with garlands 
and processions and dances just as the Mexi- 
cans had been accustomed to observe the fes- 
tivals of their own religion. The traveler 
who chances to be in Mexico City now on 
December 12, the day sacred to the Virgin 
of Guadalupe, will see in the village of 
Guadalupe, a suburb of the city, Indian pil- 
grims from the neighboring mountains danc- 
ing their quaint rounds and chanting their 
native songs as in the days before the Span- 
ish priests and monks came. 

Wholesale Christianizing. The priests who 
accompanied the soldiers were rough and 
ready fellows, suited to such associations, not 
averse to taking up carnal weapons on occa- 
sion, and ready enough to accept the idea 
that religion could be advanced by harsh and 
even bloody measures. Once the Indians 
had submitted, the superiority of Spanish 
arms and organization was such that upris- 
ings were not common. The Mexicans even 



88 Mexico To-Day 

then were of a somewhat docile and submis- 
sive temper. Hence in a very few years 
things took on a settled and orderly look. A 
distinguished ecclesiastic who annotated the 
reports of Cortez to the Spanish throne 
leaves this memorandum in regard to one of 
them: '^ The conquest took place in 1521, 
and three years after Cortez, in this dis- 
patch, speaks as if fifty years of wise gov- 
ernment had elapsed. I shall ever reverence 
Cortez, and respect his name as that of a 
civil, military, and religious hero, unexam- 
pled in his career; a subject who bore the 
freaks of fortune with fortitude and con- 
stancy, and a man destined by God to add to 
the possessions of the Catholic king a new 
and larger world." 

Later Eeligious Work. The opportunities 
for religious work under these more settled 
conditions attracted a better class of mis- 
sionaries. Men of really devout spirit, some 
of them of scholarly tastes, others philan- 
thropic and constructive statesmen who 
stood up for the Indians against their po- 
litical and industrial oppressors, still others 
destined to be the founders of great monas- 
tic establishments, came from old Spain 
to New Spain to give their lives to mis- 
sionary endeavor. Had it not been for 



Religions, Ancient and Modern 89 

tlie ineradicable defects of the Eoman Cath- 
olic presentation of the gospel, a better 
record would doubtless have been left by 
some of these good men. As it was, the re- 
ligious handling of the Indians continued to 
be closely bound up with the political treat- 
ment which they received, and together these 
produced social conditions which for three 
hundred years but made the poor poorer and 
the rich richer. 

Growth of the Orders. One of the defects of 
Catholicism which early wrought evil in the 
new world was its monastic system. The 
great religious orders were prompt to get a 
foothold there. Those were their palmy 
days. Monks and nuns came over in 
swarms. They obtained grants from the 
government of lands and endowments. They 
exacted of the poor Mexicans a heavy tribute 
of unpaid labor with which they built im- 
mense establishments in the choicest neigh- 
borhoods of city and countiy. As early as 
1644^ the city council of Mexico City for- 
warded to Philip IV of Spain a formal peti- 
tion to allow the establishment of no more 
convents and monasteries in New Spain. 
The document declares that there were al- 
ready so many monks and nuns there that 

^ Perez Verdia, Historia de Mexico, 218. 



90 Mexico To-Day 

they were quite out of proportion to the total 
population; besides which, there seemed to 
be great danger that they would get posses- 
sion of all the property in the country, of 
which they already owned half. It goes on 
to request a special order to the bishops that 
they should ordain no more priests, since 
there were already more than six thousand 
who were absolutely without occupation ; and 
that steps should be taken to diminish the 
number of holidays, of which there were two 
or three each week, a state of affairs tending 
greatly to the increase of laziness. This 
naive petition unhappily received no notice 
on the part of the court of Spain, a neglect 
which was afterwards bitterly atoned for by 
all concerned. The activity of these re- 
ligious orders resulted finally in a total of 
one hundred and seventy-nine monasteries 
and eighty-five nunneries. The Francis- 
cans led, with fifty-two out of the one 
hundred and seventy-nine; the Dominicans 
had thirty, and the Augustinians twenty- 
six. 

Gradual Demoralization of Monasticism. The 
wealth that Mexico during those centuries of 
vassalage poured into the coffers of Spain 
was undoubtedly one of the corroding influ- 
ences that brought Spain low. So in Mexico 



Eeligions, Ancient and Modeen 91 

itself, the privileged ones did not always 
really profit by their advantages. The relig- 
ious orders which at the beginning had been 
actively missionary and benevolent yielded 
later to the seductions of '' easy money," 
and as time w^ent by grew sluggish and self- 
ish and corrupt. The individual's vow of 
poverty was a light yoke when each could 
partake of the wealth of the community. 
Other vows which monks and nuns took upon 
them were equally ineffective in molding 
their conduct. Shut up in their great and 
luxurious establishments they became con- 
firmed parasites upon society. So tena- 
ciously did they hold on to their property 
that two hundred years after the protest of 
the Mexico City council, when at last Gomez 
Farias, Miguel Lerdo, Benito Juarez, and 
other patriots were beginning to agitate the 
idea of drawing on the Church to help the 
struggling republic, it was estimated that at 
least a third of the entire wealth of Mex- 
ico was in ecclesiastical hands. Much the 
greater part was property of the religious 
orders. So obnoxious had these orders then 
become that when at last the knot was cut 
and the property sequestered, the orders 
themselves were banished. That law, not 
quite rigidly enforced in later years, is still 



92 Mexico To-Day 

on the statute books of the country. It al- 
lows no three persons under religious vows 
to live together in the same house, nor can 
any distinctive religious garb be worn in the 
street. All worship must be within doors, 
no processions or open air exercises being 
allowed. What the development of religious 
orders had been to warrant measures so 
drastic may be guessed from the reaction as 
voiced in the laws themselves. All over 
Mexico may still be found fragments of the 
vast, rambling convents and monasteries. 
Huge walls of amazing thickness and ex- 
pen siveness have been cut through by the 
streets of modern cities. Light has been let 
in on many a dark secret — on hidden pas- 
sageways, on skeletons imbedded in the 
walls, on cisterns full of bones, on a thousand 
mute witnesses to this long era of luxury, 
sloth, and vice. 

Developments in Catholicism. Along with the 
development of the religious societies pro- 
ceeded that of the parishes under the direc- 
tion of the ^^ secular " clergy. The people, 
true to their religious inclination, made 
seemingly devout Catholics. They attended 
mass industriously, accepted the doctrines of 
purgatory, hell, absolution, indulgences, 
miraculous saints, and the rest, literally and 



Eeligions, Ancient and Modern 93 

unquestioningly. Not naturally of an ag- 
gressive turn of mind they did not miss the 
intellectual training which was denied them^ 
and cheerfully resigned themselves to that 
state of ignorance which seems in every land 
where the system is dominant to be the 
logical status of Roman Catholic peoples. 

Cliiircli Leaders and the Government. The 
leaders of the great monastic orders and the 
bishops and archbishops of the regular 
clergy were in frequent collision with one an- 
other. The chapels of the monks at times en- 
tered into sharp competition with the parish 
churches. Also the Catholic leaders, secular 
and monastic, often made things interesting 
for the Spanish government. Few viceroys 
escaped conflicts with them more or less vex- 
atious. Not seldom these disputes arose 
from the protests made by the priests against 
mistreatment of the Indians. They had 
their own ways of exploiting the natives, but 
they did not always remain silent when oth- 
ers oppressed them. One priest of an early 
period, Las Casas, came to be called ^' the 
protector of the Indians," and a portrait of 
him in this character by a famous Mexican 
painter is in the Fine Arts Academy, Mexico 
City. 



m 



94 Mexico To-Day 

3. Modern Roman Catholicism 

Tendencies in Catholicism. Sucli were the 
leading elements that made the Catholicism 
of Mexico what it is to-day; namely, the 
hasty and imperfect " conversion " of a doc- 
ile but idolatrous people and the sluggish 
and inefficient attitude which gradually fas- 
tened itself upon the Church leaders. The 
student of the religious history of that coun- 
try cannot fail to feel astonishment that 
conditions which began to be in the sixteenth 
century projected themselves, with only 
infinitesimal changes, far into the nine- 
teenth. And the state of affairs described 
by Baron Von Humboldt a hundred years 
ago and by Hon. Y\^addy Thompson^ and 
Madame Calderon de la Barca^ two or three 
decades later has in many essential features 
persisted even to the present. The Catholi- 
cism of Mexico is much the same as the 
Catholicism of Spain, of Portugal, and of 
Italy. In all those countries, as well as in 
South America, the West Indies, the Philip- 
pines, and other countries, that Church has 
had a similar development and for the same 
reason : it has been (at least till very recently) 
uninfluenced by Protestant public sentiment. 

1 Recollections of Mexico (1840). 2 x^yg in Mexico (1842). 



Eeligions, Ancient and Modern 95 

One result of this has been a close alliance 
between the Church and the government. 
This has had many important effects on both. 
The Koman Catholic Church is perforce in- 
tolerant. Theoretically it does not admit re- 
ligious liberty, and agrees to toleration only 
when it must. Wherever it has had alhance 
with the civil power its first demand has been 
that no other form of worship shall be al- 
lowed. This is the secret of the fact that 
until recently there were no Protestant 
churches in the countries above mentioned. 
As a rule, where republican governments 
have been set up, one of the principles put 
forth by them has been liberty of conscience 
and of worship. But even in spite of this 
the power of custom and the persistence of 
the Catholic party have often availed to pre- 
vent the introduction of missions. 

Not Everywhere the Same. It is well to re- 
member that there is a deep and wide differ- 
ence between the Koman Catholic Church as 
it is known in the United States and England 
and the same Church in the countries men- 
tioned above. Theoretically that Church is 
everywhere the same, but the facts do not 
bear out the theory. And, without meaning 
to give offense, one may note that there are 
tendencies inherent in certain doctrines of 



96 Mexico To-Day 

Catholicism wliicli if unchecked by '' pro- 
test " from without will surely lead to the 
deplorable conditions now to be found in 
strictly Catholic countries. Take, for exam- 
ple, the authority conferred on the priests. 
The results of it are bad for both the priest 
and the people. As affecting the Christian 
it tends to relieve him of that sense of indi- 
vidual responsibility which is the motive of 
all character. If another is able to care for 
our spiritual welfare here and to furnish us 
safe conduct hereafter, why should we vex 
ourselves about the matter? So people rea- 
son. Instead of being guided by their own 
conscience and judgment they only seek to 
obey the priest. That is a state of affairs 
which means sooner or later the divorce of 
morality from religion. 

Bemoralization of the Priests. On the other 
hand the outcome of this doctrine is quite as 
bad for the priest. The sense of his author- 
ity and power subtly diffuses itself through 
all his inner life. It is dangerous for him. 
He will presently be wishing to direct not 
only the religious life of his people but all 
their affairs. He ceases to reason with them 
because it is easier to command. He no 
longer teaches; ultimately he stops preach- 
ing. Preaching is almost a lost art in the 



Eeligions, Ancient and Modern 97 

Catholic Church of Mexico. A sermon is ad- 
vertised on special occasions as a matter of 
wide public interest. Holy Week is distin- 
guished from other seasons in that a sermon 
may be expected at least on Good Friday and 
on Easter Sunday. Some years ago in one of 
the mountain villages of the State of Michoa- 
can word was brought to the young man in 
charge of a Protestant mission church that 
the parishioners of the Catholic Church 
wished him to come over and preach for 
them. They had had a disagreement with 
their priest — not an unusual matter among 
those hardy Indians — and he would not 
preach, and they thought it too bad that 
Holy Week should pass without a sermon. 
Of course, it need not be added that Sunday- 
schools and other forms of Christian teach- 
ing are not known where even the sermon is 
almost extinct. The sermons that are 
preached on the rare occasions when there 
is preaching, are usually nothing more than 
brief lectures on the dangers of '^ heresy,'' 
and like subjects, sometimes becoming ti- 
rades in condemnation of the Bible and of 
Protestants. 

Their Contented Ignorance. Unhappy results 
also in the character and conduct of the 
priests might naturally be anticipated from 



98 Mexico To-Day 

this power and authority vested in tliem. And 
here, as in the character and development of 
the people, the facts bear ont the forecast. 
Deprived of the incentive of teaching others, 
the priests cease to study. Within a genera- 
tion or two learning virtually disappears. 
The ignorance of Mexican priests is aston- 
ishing. One of the native ministers of a 
Protestant Church there told me that he had 
long made a business of seeking interviews 
with the priests where his work had taken 
him, hoping to be of service to them as well 
as to others, and that he had never found one 
who had a Bible in Spanish or that even knew 
how to find his way about in the Bible when 
looking up texts, many not even knowing in 
which Testament to find a certain book. 
Such poverty of mental and spiritual equip- 
ment easily leads to slothfulness and the in- 
dulgence of low appetites. Habits that are 
not elevating have written on the faces of 
many of the padres of Mexico only too plain 
a record that all who meet them may read. 

Eifects of Ecclesiastical Autocracy. This doc- 
trine of the authority of the Church has af- 
fected the religious and intellectual life of 
the people of Mexico in many ways, though 
some of them are slightly less direct than 
those already mentioned. To be sure, had 




Copyright by Underwood and Underwood, N, Y. 

CATHEDKAL, MEXICO CITY 



Eeligions, Ancient and Modern 99 

the doctrine been spiritually interpreted, and 
had it been restrained by an alert public sen- 
timent from leaving the spiritual realm, no 
great harm might have come. It is not 
wholly an erroneous doctrine. But this was 
not done, and those effects of it already 
traced are but part of the story as it affects 
Mexico. The uninstructed condition of the 
people, for example, and the assumption that 
they are Christians if they receive and prac- 
tise the Christian rites, have brought in their 
train a long list of consequences. Supersti- 
tion is always ready to lay hold of our hu- 
manity wherever the religious instincts of 
men are not otherwise satisfied; and super- 
stition finds its opportunity in ignorance. 
The worship of saints, which is but another 
name for the worship of images, has fastened 
itself firmly upon the Mexican Catholics. In 
almost any village church may be found pic- 
tures of miraculous events that are connected 
with the name of a local saint. Some shrines 
are famous throughout a wide region. The 
patron saint of the Indians, the Virgin of 
Guadalupe, is the most noted of all, being 
looked upon as an indigena, a native Mexi- 
can. Her image is everywhere and is 
thought to be unusually ^ ' miraculous. ' ' The 
hill below the little chapel where the original 



100 Mexico To-Day 

picture, painted on an Indian ^s coarse blan- 
ket, long rested is covered with reminders of 
how sailors, travelers, soldiers, workmen, 
women have been helped when they called 
out of their troubles on ^' the Holy Mother 
of Guadalupe.'^ A large stucco sail perched 
on the side of the hill proclaims afar the 
gratitude of some who long ago were rescued 
by her from shipwreck. Crutches, bandages, 
canes, and the like, accompanied by thou- 
sands of crude paintings of rescues and heal- 
ing, bear their mute testimony to the faith of 
Mexico in this her favorite saint. 

Saints and Images. The thought of the 
common people is so crude that always 
^^ saint " is the equivalent of picture or 
image. A special image in some shrine or 
chapel begins to get a reputation as '' mi- 
raculous," and forthwith pictures of this 
saint commence to circulate, to be in their 
turn objects of prayer and veneration. A 
saint of this kind may prove to be quite a 
source of income. The petitioners who are 
especially in earnest, or those who come in 
gratitude for favors received, usually bring 
otferings. Occasionally one of these '^ mi- 
raculous " saints is discovered in a private 
house or in an obscure chapel not connected 
with the parish church. Unless it can be se- 



Religions, Ancient and Modern 101 

cured for the cliurch, it is apt soon to incur 
opposition from the priest, who does not rel- 
ish seeing others profit by an income that 
ought to belong to him. Shrewd promoters 
have been known to make the reputation of a 
saint by causing it to '^ grow '^ or to 
^^ sweat " or even to '^ bleed." Any of 
these effects is looked upon as direct proof 
of special powers. 

Saints and Their Days. In the homes of the 
people the pictures and images of the saints, 
especially of those having local fame or for 
some reason particularly honored in the 
family, are kept and reverently venerated. 
Litanies recited before these saints are in 
many homes a sort of substitute for family 
worship. The calendar of the Catholic 
saints is a very long one, supplying a saint 
for every day in the 'year, with a considerable 
surplus. No matter, therefore, when a baby 
arrives, he has always a patron saint, usually 
the one on whose day he is born. Unless 
there is some good reason to the contrary he 
receives the name of that saint. The Mexi- 
cans consider a given name that cannot be 
identified with some saint quite shocking, 
calling it an " animal name." The day of 
any saint of special importance is usually 
honored as a holiday, and each individual 



102 Mexico To-Day 

must by all means lionor Ms own particular 
patron by keeping holiday on liis birthday or 
on the day of the saint for whom he is named. 
Till recently there were so many of these 
holidays that their observance affected seri- 
ously the productiveness of industrial work- 
ers. The modern revival of industrialism 
with the urgent pressure of the '' steam 
age "has tended to cure this evil. But even 
yet it is often most exasperating to the em- 
ployer of labor to find his men leaving off 
work at most inconvenient times on the plea 
that they must observe a saint's day. 

The Household Saint. A certain uncon- 
sciously humorous familiarity is at times dis- 
played by the people of remote neighbor- 
hoods in their dealings with their household 
saints. Earnest prayers are made to these 
images in any domestic crisis, and if all goes 
well, the saint gets the credit. But if evil 
is not warded otf, if sickness is persistent or 
fatal, if the donkeys are not recovered when 
stolen, or the cattle contract disease, then the 
saint must submit to righteous condemna- 
tion. He may have his face turned to the 
wall or be hanged head downward, or even 
be shut up in a closet or banished to the attic. 
He runs the risk of forfeiting entirely the 
faith of those who have long trusted him. 



Eeligions, Ancient and Modern 103 

How desolating to the spiritual life all this 
is need scarcely be pointed out. 

A " Beautiful Christ." Besides copying and 
circulating the pictures of famous images, 
the people believe implicitly in material 
manifestations or apparitions. If a maguey 
leaf haiopens to be curiously discolored, in 
outlines resembling a human face, it will 
probably be hailed as a miracle. I was 
walking one day among the barren hills near 
San Luis Potosi when I fell in with an amia- 
ble and talkative countryman. He an- 
swered many questions about the country, 
its products, its plants and birds and game 
and minerals. Presently as we came to the 
top of a ridge sown with cactus and stones 
and marked with an occasional scragged 
mesquit, my companion said with much ani- 
mation, " A beautiful Christ once appeared 
near here." I began to inquire about the 
details of the apparition, how it was, who 
had seen the vision, and similar questions. 
In reply he said, '' Come, I will show you 
the stump." Then I gathered that a mes- 
quit tree (a kind of acacia, closely related 
to ebony and common in the arid lands of 
Mexico) had grown with tv/o branches ex- 
tended like the arms of a cross and on the 
trunk between some formation that in fancy 



104 Mexico To-Day 

might be supposed to resemble the body and 
face of a man. The tree was accepted as a 
miracle, cut down, and placed in the village 
church to be honored along with the other 
Christs on exhibition there. I saw the 
stump. 

A Puzzling duestion. ^' Tell me,'' I said to 
my new friend, ^' how it is you have in 
Mexico so many Christs. In my country we 
have heard of One, who is the Son of God. 
Once he came and was a man. He went 
away into heaven and we believe lives there 
now. But he is only one. Here you have 
many — Christs here, Christs there, Christs 
everywhere." The man looked puzzled and 
troubled. He was not used to thinking. At 
last in that resigned tone so natural to his 
people he said : ^ ' I do not know, sir, how it 
is. Perhaps it is as you say." Then he 
brightened up again and said, '^ But that 
was a beautiful Christ which appeared here. 
If you come sometime to our village church 
I will show it to you." 

Is Mexico Christian? This story illustrates 
another defect of the Christianity of Mexico. 
It will be remembered that some people ob- 
ject to Protestant missions in Mexico on the 
ground that it is already a Christian coun- 
try. But the added defect is a grossly in- 



..Ji 



Eeligions, Ancient and Modern 105 



adequate conception of Christ. For the 
Mexican the Savior of men is only one of a 
numerous calendar of saints. He is no 
more important than others, and often not 
so well known as St. Peter or St. James. 
Indeed, when some pretense at theological 
statement is made he is usually represented 
as a stern and angry Judge, who must be ap- 
proached through another and can most 
surely be conciliated by the intercession of 
his own mother. 

Rivalry Between Vir^ns. The development 
of Mariolatry has been more pronounced in 
Mexico than in perhaps any other Eoman 
Catholic country. One of the favorite 
saints of the Spanish invaders during and 
immediately following the Conquest was an 
image of Mary called Nuestra Sehora de los 
Eemedios. This particular image was 
borne as their talisman during the struggles 
of Cortez and his followers to enter the 
capital of the Aztec kingdom. Madame de 
la Barca tells in her usual ,«td rightly manner 
the story of this Virgin: 

The Spanish Vir^n. ^' We went lately to 
pay a visit to the celebrated ' Virgin de los 
Eemedios/ the Spanish patroness and rival 
of ' Our Lady of Guadalupe.' This Virgin 
was brought over from Spain by the army of 



106 Mexico To-Day 

Cortez, and on the night of the Noche Triste 
the image disappeared, and nothing further 
was known of it, until, on the top of a barren 
mountain, in the heart of a large maguey, it 
was found. Her restoration was joyfully 
hailed by the Spaniards. A church was 
erected on the sjDot. A priest was appointed 
to take charge of the miraculous image. 
Her fame spread abroad. Gifts of immense 
value were brought to her shrine. A treas- 
urer was appointed to take care of her jew- 
els, a camarista (a keeper of robes) to super- 
intend her wardrobe. No wealthy dowager 
died in peace until she had bequeathed to 
Our Lady of Remedies her largest diamond 
or her richest pearl. In seasons of drought 
she is brought in from her dwelling in the 
mountain and carried in procession through 
the streets. The viceroy himself on foot 
used to lead the holy train. One of the 
highest rank drives the chariot in which she 
is seated. In succession she visits the prin- 
cipal convents, and as she is carried through 
the cloistered precincts the nuns are ranged 
on their knees in humble adoration. Plenti- 
ful rains, it is said, immediately follow her 
arrival, or pestilences are terminated. . . . 
It is true that there came a time when the 
famous curate Hidalgo, the prime mover in 



Eeligions, Ancient and Modern 107 

the revolution, having taken as his standard 
an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, an in- 
creased rivalry arose between her and the 
Spanish Virgin; and Hidalgo being defeated 
and forced to fly, the image of the Virgin de 
los Eemedios was conducted to Mexico 
dressed as a general and invoked as the 
patroness of Spain. . . . 

Shrine of '^ Our Lady of Eemedies." ' ' The 
church where she is enshrined is handsome, 
and above the altar is a copy of the original 
Virgin. After we had remained there a lit- 
tle while we were admitted into the sanctum, 
where the identical Virgin of Cortez, with a 
large silver maguey, occupies her splendid 
shrine. The priest retired and put on his 
robes, and then returning, and all kneeling 
before the altar, he recited the Credo. This 
over, he mounted the steps, and, opening the 
shrine where the Virgin was incased, knelt 
down and removed her in his arms. He 
then presented her to each one of us in suc- 
cession, every one kissing the hem of her 
satin robe. She was afterward replaced 
with the same ceremony. 

Ugly Appearing Image. ^' The image is a 
wooden doll about a foot high, holding in its 
arms an infant Jesus, both faces evidently 
carved with a rude penknife, two holes for 



108 Mexico To-Day 

the eyes ^nd another for the mouth. The 
doll was dressed in blue satin and pearls, 
with a crown upon her head, and a quantity 
of hair fastened into the crown. No Indian 
idol could be much uglier. As she has been 
a good deal scratched and destroyed in the 
lapse of ages, C — n observed that he was as- 
tonished that they had not tried to restore 
her a little. To this the padre replied that 
the attempt had been made by several art- 
ists, each one of whom had sickened and 
died.'' 

The Indian Virgin. The rival to the Spanish 
Virgin is the Indian Virgin of Guadalupe. 
The story of this image, painted on the 
coarse cloth of a shepherd's blanket, was 
told to Madame de la Barca by the bishop in 
charge of the cathedral of the little town of 
Guadalupe as follows: 

Story of the Apparition. ^^ In 1531, ten years 
and four months after the conquest of Mex- 
ico, a fortunate Indian, whose name was 
Juan Diego, passing by the mountain of 
Tepeyac, a short distance north of Mexico 
City, the holy Virgin suddenly appeared be- 
fore him and ordered him to go in her name 
to the bishop, the Ylustrisimo D. Fr. Juan 
de Zumarraga, and to make known to him 
that she desired to have a place of worship 



Eeligions, Ancient and Modeen 109 

erected in tier honor on that spot. The next 
day the Indian passed by the same place, 
when again the holy Virgin appeared before 
him and demanded the result of his commis- 
sion. Juan Diego replied that in spite of 
his endeavor he had not been able to obtain 
an audience with the bishop. ' Eeturn/ said 
the Virgin, ^ and say that it is I, the Virgin 
Mary, mother of God, who sends thee.' 
Juan Diego obeyed the divine orders, yet 
still the bishop would not give him credence, 
merely desiring him to bring some sign or 
token of the Virgin's will. He returned 
with this message on the 12th of December, 
when, for the third time, he beheld the ap- 
parition of the Virgin. She now com- 
manded him to climb to the top of the barren 
rock of Tepeyac, to gather the roses which 
he should find there, and to bring them to 
her. The humble messenger obeyed, though 
well knowing that on that spot were neither 
flowers nor any trace of vegetation. Never- 
theless, he found the roses, which he gath- 
ered and brought to the Virgin Mary, who, 
throwing them into his tilma (blanket), said, 
^ Eeturn, show these to the bishop, and tell 
him that these are the credentials of thy 
mission.' Juan Diego set out for the epis- 
copal residence, and when he found himself 



110 Mexico To-Day 

in tlie presence of the prelate he unfolded 
his tilma to show him the roses, when there 
appeared imprinted on it the miraculous im- 
age which has existed for more than three 
centuries." 

Virgin of Guadalupe. Such is the account 
which all devout Catholics are expected to 
believe. As this Virgin is thought of and 
spoken of as a native, an " Indita,'' she is 
very popular in Mexico. The figure as 
painted has been traced to an obscure church 
in Spain, though just how it was brought 
over to Mexico is not known. The whole 
fable was a step taken to secure the alle- 
giance of the natives. The adoption of the 
image as patron of the Mexicans in their 
war for independence has already been 
noted. 

Unchanging Eome. The awakening influ- 
ences of the nineteenth century have 
wrought a few profound changes in the re- 
ligious situation in Mexico. Some account 
of these will be given later. But in a gen- 
eral way, the Catholicism which has just 
been described furnished the religious set- 
ting faced by the first evangelical mission- 
aries when they entered Mexico during the 
latter half of that century. In wealth and 
in prestige of position the Church had lost 



Eeligions, An^cien^t and Modern 111 

much ground since the days of Madame de 
la Barca or even of Abbe Domenech. But 
in the superstition and ignorance of the peo- 
ple and in the absolute unfitness of the clergy 
for intellectual and spiritual leadership there 
had been no change at all. 



SOCIAL AND MORAL INHERITANCES 



The peons of Mexico are weak and ignorant, yes. It is 
not because they were made so by an all-wise Creator, but 
because they are serfs. Serfs have always been weak and 
ignorant, and always will be so. They are not serfs because 
they are weak and ignorant; they are weak and ignorant 
because they are serfs. It is the custom to put the blame 
for the shortcomings of these peons upon the peons them- 
selves. If persons are to be blamed why not blame the 
hacendados, for it is they, and not the peons, who order 
the lives of the peons? 

The blame cannot properly be placed upon either, but 
upon the system of feudalism, which produces the same 
results wherever found. — John Kenneth Turner. 

In^ view of this terrible degradation of the Christian 
religion, it is little wonder that the morals of the people 
have suffered in a corresponding degree. Marriage among 
a large proportion of the poorer classes is looked upon as a 
useless formality, an expensive luxury which they can ill 
afford. This is due to the exorbitant fees which the Church 
demands under penalty of excommunication; and partly, 
also, to the openly immoral lives of many of the clergy. 
Baptism is also very widely neglected because the people 
are too poor to pay the fee. It is no wonder that the 
intellectual stimulus which Mexico has recently received, 
through contact with other nations, has led to a wholesale 
rebellion against this travesty of the Christian religion. 
Of those who are responsible for Mexico's great advance- 
ment in the past fifty years, the majority have broken 
with the Roman Church, and are openly hostile to it. 
The most enlightened ones of the nation, in other words, 
have renounced the only religion they have ever known. — 
Lefford M. A. Haughwout. 



CHAPTEE IV 

SOCIAL AND MOKAL. INHEKITANCES 

Ignorance the Mother of Evil. In all nations 
moral conditions are intimately bound np 
with intellectual life. Ignorant men may be 
good, and educated men bad, but taking 
whole nations into account, ignorance is the 
mother of evil. This is not because an illit- 
erate man cannot be a good man, but because 
ignorance means weakness, and weakness 
exposes humanity to moral deterioration as 
well as to many other evils. This is espe- 
cially true in regard to social life. The com- 
munity runs more of risk in its morals by 
living in ignorance than does the individual. 
Social evils are those that man perpetuates 
on man — and woman. Professor Eoss has 
distinguished between vice, the wrong a man 
commits against himself, and sin, the evil 
that he does to his fellows. Using the words 
in this sense it is easy to see how sin will 
abound where men are helpless through ig- 
norance. Their helplessness makes them 
easy victims, both of designing men and of 

115 



116 Mexico To-Day 

adverse conditions. Even vice increases 
when artificially fomented. The crowding 
of tenements, for example, has a direct bear- 
ing upon the morals of the people who live 
in the slum districts. It is naturally impos- 
sible to parcel out responsibility in matters 
of this kind. No adverse conditions excuse 
a man or a people from the struggle for 
moral excellence, but it is easy to see how 
conditions often make that struggle heavier 
and more hopeless than it should be. 

Causes of Ignorance in Mexico. In Mexico, in- 
tellectual limitations have sent down deep 
and widespread roots. We have seen how 
there was a sort of conspiracy of influences 
to keep the bulk of the people of that land 
in ignorance. The landowners preferred to 
deal with an ignorant clientage because such 
people are easier to exploit. So of the min- 
ing interests. The ignorant peon was help- 
less. He could not combine with his fellows. 
He could not defend his rights against 
crooked bookkeeping or unfavorable condi- 
tions of labor. He was a ^' hand " and 
nothing more. Employers therefore found 
pretexts for keeping the working people in 
ignorance. 

Church Did "Not Befriend Education. Church 
leaders also gradually reached the attitude 



Social and Moeal Inheritances 117 

of discouraging the education of the people. 
They did not really need to know much, so 
it was argued. Their land smiled with 
plenty. The climate made small demands in 
the matter of clothes and houses. Their 
spiritual advisers assumed full responsi- 
bility in regard to their future welfare. 
The Spanish government was equally pater- 
nal in taking entire charge of their present 
interests. Why then should they ^ ^ heat 
their heads," as the Spanish idiom puts it, 
in a struggle for education, for information, 
for intellectual growth! There were prac- 
tically no books, for the Index Expurgato- 
rius suppressed them. There were few pa- 
pers, because the government exercised a 
severe censorship. There were no public 
schools^ — no demand for them, no houses, no 
teachers, no money provided. The country 
floated gently down the stream of years in 
contented ignorance. Eighty per cent, and 
more of its people were illiterate. There 
were a few schools for the children of the 
rich, and the government endowed profes- 
sional academies and even supplied scholar- 
ships for foreign study. The Church had 
seminaries for its priests and occasional pa- 
rochial schools of a primitive order for its 
parishioners' children. The catechism by 



118 Mexico To-Day 

rote and something of the ^' lives of the 
saints " comprised the curriculum of these 
schools. They did not, for the most part, 
rise even to the dignity of primary schools. 
Neither master nor parents thought it im- 
portant that the children should learn to 
read. Of course the children fell in with this 
kind of public sentiment willingly enough. 

Evil Consequences. Many and varied conse- 
quences can be traced to this state of con- 
tented ignorance. It went on for centuries. 
The social customs which grew out of it had 
time to petrify. It is the tendency of cus- 
tom to grow into law, especially among a 
people dependent upon tradition and on 
word of mouth precepts for its intellectual 
life. Some of the traditions that came to 
be handed down were far from helpful and 
elevating when translated into practise. 
There are conditions in Mexican society yet 
which shock the observer but which do not 
shock the Mexicans. They are used to 
them. They see in them practises sanc- 
tioned by custom running back beyond the 
memory of their fathers. Naturally they 
reason that what has been done so long can 
not be much amiss. 

Want of Moral Sanctions. Many of these ob- 
jectionable practises might have been reme- 



Social, and Moral Inheritances 119 

died had tlie Church supplied a moral sanc- 
tion to life. But gradually the religious life 
of the people, guided wholly by the Roman 
Catholic Church, came to divorce itself from 
morals. The demands which Catholicism 
made could be met without regard to the 
spiritual and ethical life. They were mostly 
compliance with rites and ceremonies, im- 
plicit obedience to the priest, and a spirit of 
hearty intolerance for all dissent. None 
of these have to do with morals. Hence,, 
humanly speaking, a man could be as 
immoral as he liked and remain a good 
Catholic. 

Industrial Oppression. Let us look for a mo- 
ment at industrial conditions. One phase 
of these which has had a wide influence is 
the peonage system. This is, in brief, a 
plan by which the employer of laborers 
secures a control over them not differing 
in any essential point from actual owner- 
ship. At first they were '' commended '^ to 
him by the Church in a decree which the 
state felt bound to enforce. If any of these 
^' heathen " workmen got tired of the means 
used to make a Christian of him and ran 
away, he was brought back like any other 
escaped prisoner and turned over to his mas- 
ter to be ^* converted." After this farce of 



120 Mexico To-Day 

*^ missionary " work liad been ended by the 
decree of Charles V abolishing the encomi- 
endas, laws governing the relation of labor- 
ers and employer were enacted in Mexico 
which virtually perpetuated the system of 
peonage already begun. These enactments 
were, of course, all favorable to the em- 
ployer, for they were devised and passed by 
the wealthy Spaniards and enforced by a 
government which was under their control. 
The most telling of them was a law that no 
laborer could leave the hacienda of his em- 
ployer so long as he was indebted to it. In 
case he did go away while in debt, he could 
be arrested and brought back and made to 
work out his indebtedness. 

Hoary Abuses. These iniquitous laws re- 
mained on the statute-book for centuries. 
The customs bred by them became hoary tra- 
ditions. The working people were power- 
less to protest. They had no opportunity 
of organizing for joint action, and no ca- 
pacity for it. Even after the coming of in- 
dependence, congress and the state legisla- 
tures were made up almost wholly from the 
employers' class. So the laws, with slight 
modifications, held on — in some states they 
seem even yet to be in force. President 
Diaz some twenty years ago made a stout 




HOMES OF THE POOR 
INTEIIIOR OF HOME OF A WEALTHY GENTLEMAN 



SoCIAi AND MOKAL InHEKITANCES 121 

attack on tlie custom of paying in scrip and 
succeeded in liaving it abolished by a federal 
law establishing a uniform national cur- 
rency and outlawing all substitutes. But 
the peonage laws, as such, and the exemp- 
tion of unimproved lands from taxation, are 
matters with which state legislatures deal. 
The efforts of the federal government under 
Diaz to do away with these abuses were only 
partially successful. 

Resulting Poverty. Their helplessness un- 
der such laws and customs has inflicted upon 
the working people of Mexico a degrading 
state of poverty. In food and clothing and 
housing, through long usage they have be- 
come contented — seemingly, at least — with 
most intolerable conditions. They eat noth- 
ing but boiled beans and corn cakes. They 
dress through all seasons in thin and cheap 
cotton. They live in hovels. Wages are 
now slowly rising and better food and 
clothes are coming along with the increase. 
But it wrings the heart to think of the long 
centuries in which the vast majority of Mex- 
ico 's people have been subjected to a state 
of poverty so deep and so utterly hopeless. 
Their complete subjugation and the utter 
lack of any outlook for improvement in their 
condition have given them an air of patient 



122 Mexico To-Day 

resignation that is pathetic. It also be- 
tokens a state of mind that is disastrous. 
The effort to establish a stable government 
in Mexico has been wrecked repeatedly on 
this great stone of dead inertia, of hopeless 
indifference, of inefficiency bred by igno- 
rance and the want of ideals. 

Moral Inheritances. In many ways other 
than in the industrial and political realm 
Mexico is still paying toll on her days of op- 
pression. Her moral atmosphere has been 
tainted by conditions which came of the ab- 
normal social and political situation follow- 
ing the conquest, and of the fact that her 
religion, instead of remedying abuses, but 
made them worse. A majority of Mexico's 
people long were, and are even yet, in a state 
which may be described as servile. People 
who virtually belong to others, who must 
look to others for food and clothes and all 
that makes life endurable, if not actually for 
life itself, need the steadying power of a 
spiritual religion. The man whose soul is 
free can afford to be indifferent to shackles 
upon his body. But if people exposed to 
such material conditions as have been de- 
scribed have also a material religion, one of 
rites and forms, of images, recited prayers, 
interceding priests, and meager instruction, 



Social and Mokal Inheritances 123 

tlieii their religion, instead of consoling and 
remedying, will but exaggerate their indus- 
trial misfortunes. 

Ritual No Substitute for Teaching. This is 
what has happened in Mexico. The people^, 
naturally religious, got whatever of comfort; 
they could out of the teachings of Rome, 
They rejoiced especially in the worship of 
the Virgin Mary, believing her to be com- 
passionate. They cajoled and petted, and 
sometimes punished, the images of favorite 
saints, — for them the image is the saint, — 
they rejoiced in musical masses, processions 
on feast days, and the thousand other osten- 
tatious and showy ways of their Church. 
But they had from it no moral backing. The 
priests set them bad examples. Most of the 
clergy were self-indulgent and corrupt men. 
Indeed, in twenty-five years I have seldom, 
found a Mexican of intelligence who would 
admit that any of the priests were good men. 
They advanced a fantastic theory that one 
might be a bad man without ceasing to be a 
good priest, and resting on this gave them- 
selves to excesses of every kind. 

The Sin of Lying. There are a few sins that 
are peculiarly the temptation of subject peo- 
ples. One of them is lying. Men who are 
subject to the whim of others come to think 



124 Mexico To-Day 

of interest first and truth, second. They tell 
what they think will be best for them. They 
instinctively adopt a policy of concealment 
and deceit. In every age and nation, lying 
is recognized as a vice of slaves. Now the 
Mexican was not, and is not, technically a 
slave. But we have seen how politically, in- 
dustrially, socially, religiously, he was a sub- 
ject. He was oppressed. He was kept 
down. He was shackled by every manner of 
limitation. He came, perforce, to have the 
servile attitude of mind. Nor would I say 
that Mexico is a land of liars. Such a state- 
ment would be a wrong and an untruth. It 
is undeniable, however, that truth is not ex- 
alted there as it might be. It has long been 
discounted. Nobody takes oifense at being 
called a liar. It is mere badinage. The 
word has lost its bitterness. I have heard 
students say of an incorrect exercise, '^ This 
thing is full of lies.^' A young man said to 
another in a group as I passed, ^' Well, you 
have been about a good deal, but you are as 
big a liar as ever, ' ' at which they all laughed. 
The Claims of Politeness. Truth has had to 
make way for all sorts of things. It is sec- 
ondary, for example, to politeness. That is 
measurably the case everywhere. A Mexi- 
can will, on principle, tell a lie rather than 



Social and Moral Inheeitances 125 

seem impolite. It is to Mm the lesser of 
two faults. Once a Mexican preacher and I 
rode into a little town from a horseback trip 
into the interior. I was going to take the 
train next morning, he to go on with the 
horses another day's ride to where he lived. 
My horse was a hired one, he rode his own. 
I stopped at a hotel, bnt he preferred to go 
to the meson (inn), in order to be near the 
horses and get an early start. I invited him 
to have supper with me. After seeing the 
horses cared for we went over to the hotel. 
The proprietor welcomed us effusively. 
After I had arranged for supper and a room 
he rubbed his hands together and said ^' I 
have also stables for your horses, gentlemen, 
if you need them.'' I had no reply to make, 
thinking it was none of his business what we 
did with our horses. Not so my Mexican 
brother, who at once spoke up and said, 
'' Oh, we just had some borrowed horses and 
have been to return them to their owners ! ' ' 
I was dumfounded. But I could not think 
of anything to say that offered any prospect 
of accomplishing good, so I said nothing. 
Use of Words. The unreliability of the 
working classes of Mexico is proverbial. If 
asked a question, they look sharply to see if 
they can make out the answer you prefer, 



126 Mexico To-Day 

and then reply accordingly. They do not 
like to confess ignorance, and have a trying 
habit of saying, " Si, senor/' to all ques- 
tions for which yes or no may serve as an 
answer. Their promises are utterly futile, 
both because of their want of a sense of the 
value of truth and of their lack of any under- 
standing of time. " To-morrow " means 
any future time. They will not refuse even 
a beggar outright, but will ask him to return 
'^ to-morrow." A carpenter came once to 
see me about some work which I was anxious 
to have done, but as it was Sunday when he 
came I explained my objection to doing busi- 
ness that day and asked him to come back 
'' to-morrow." The word was fatal. He 
thought I was dismissing him, and never re- 
turned. The dilatory and incompetent ways 
of the working people are constantly cov- 
ered up by fabrications. If you ask a man 
about a task which you have not seen he will 
usually claim to have done all he thinks you 
expect him to have done. 

Business Men Eeliable. Though this disre- 
gard of truth has largely pervaded society, 
it has not, strange to say, greatly affected 
the honor and reliability of business firms. 
Manufacturers and wholesale dealers agree 
that there are no more reliable business men 



Social and Moeal Inheritances 127 

to be found than the established firms of 
Mexico. They are often exasperatingly 
slow, and consider an extension of credit on 
their orders for two or three years nothing 
unreasonable. Their own rule of business 
is the opposite of that commonly adopted in 
the United States. Their motto seems to be 
slow sales and big profits. This suits them 
and apparently suits their customers also. 
It is a wise manufacturer who adjusts him- 
self to it and establishes and maintains con- 
fidential relations with such firms. They 
are almost always solid financially, they 
have a rich field, and they do business 
largely on the basis of personal relations 
and acquaintanceship. 

Sin of Stealing. This digression naturally 
brings me to consider that failing which is 
so close akin to lying, namely, stealing. 
Concerning this we may say as of lying: 
^^ Mexico is not a land of thieves, yet pilfer- 
ing is far too common there and is looked 
upon with much more of tolerance than it 
ought to be.'' Stealing is like lying in being 
a sort of natural outgrowth of servility. 
Slaves, whether industrial or chattel, are al- 
ways poor. They are without the incentive 
of self-respect. They are apt even to reason 
that they have certain rights to the belong- 



128 Mexico To-Day 

ings of tlieir masters, since they too are 
property. The old darky defended stealing 
from his master on the ground that it was 
his master's property that was benefited. 
He was slow to drive the hogs out of the 
cornfield because it was both ^' massa's cohn 
and massa's hogs." 

Skilful Pilfering. It is useless to deny that 
in this respect, too, the laboring people of 
Mexico still show traces of their long ap- 
prenticeship in servility. They have an in- 
veterate weakness for picking up loose ob- 
jects, whether needful to them or not. As 
for that, they are so poor that they can make 
some use of almost anything, and, in the 
cities, especially, can either sell or pawn any 
object whatever for some amount. In Mex- 
ico City there was long maintained a 
^' thieves' market " — a sort of clearing- 
house of all kinds of objects of small value. 
To it property owners went to recover 
knives, hatchets, hammers, shoes, keys, hats, 
chains, locks, umbrellas, and various other 
small objects that had walked off. It was 
tolerated by a sort of agreement on the part 
of both citizens and police that it was sim- 
pler and better to buy back such things than 
to try to identify and punish the thieves. 
When I first went to Mexico (1884) there 



Social and Moral Inheeitances 129 

was great scarcity in that country of iron 
and steel. None of the country's own re- 
sources for this material had been properly 
developed and an almost prohibitive tariff 
kept out foreign supplies or forced them up 
to enormous prices. Now the desire of ev- 
ery Mexican's heart is to have a good ma- 
chete or puntilla to carry. The machete is 
a short sword or long knife, something like 
a corn-cutter knife. The puntilla is a dag- 
ger, long or short, wide or slender, heavy or 
keen, as the case may be, but always sharp- 
ened ready for use. Their smiths are skil- 
ful in the making and tempering of these 
highly valued tools, and will make them out 
of almost any bit of good iron or of steel that 
can be laid hands on. I recall a machete 
which was most highly valued by one of my 
old friends — he had carried it for nearly 
fifty years — which had been made out of a 
blacksmith's rasp. Some of the corruga- 
tions could be traced on the side of it still. 
This pressing demand for steel resulted in 
a frequency and variety of pilfering which 
greatly interested and often amused me. 
The railroads were the greatest sufferers. 
The tools used on track work had to be con- 
stantly watched. The flowing blanket, which 
is an essential part of a Mexican's dress, can 



130 Mexico To-Day 

easily be thrown around any object of mod- 
erate size. An engineer in charge of some 
track construction told me that on a certain 
occasion he noticed one of a group of idlers 
who had been talking with his men moving 
off rather stiffly. He stepped up and was 
greatly interested to find that, by some gym- 
nastic feat which he does not yet understand, 
the man had thrust down the inside of his 
loose cotton trousers-leg a crowbar about 
five feet long and weighing something like 
twenty pounds, and was making off with his 
treasure. Every detachable bit of metal 
about the tracks was liable to disappear — 
switch bars, levers, rods, fish-plates, and 
even the spikes which hold down the rails. 
Indeed the stealing of spikes became so com- 
mon, and so many disastrous train wrecks 
occurred in consequence, that a drastic law 
was passed by which this was made a capital 
offense. 

Position of Woman. Another of Mexico's 
unhappy inheritances has been the degrada- 
tion of her womanhood. The union of 
Spaniard and Mexican was usually by the 
marriage of a native woman to a Spanish 
husband. It can be readily seen how favor- 
able the conditions were for the domineering 
of husband over wife. The Indian, after the 



SociAx. AND Moral Inheritances 131 

manner of primitive peoples, accepted the 
degradation of the sqnaw as a matter of 
course. The Spanish conquistador es were 
not likely to take a better view of their na- 
tive wives than the native hnsbands were 
accustomed to. Inferiority of every kind 
was thus thrust upon the women of a whole 
nation and meekly accepted by them. And 
the nation has not recovered from the effects 
to this day. 

Degradation of Ignorance. It is especially 
true that intellectual inferiority — accepted 
as such even if not actual — soon brings in 
its train moral degradation. When men 
look upon their wives as their inferiors they 
are not likely to be true to them. Wives will 
not be, in the long run, better than their hus- 
bands. In all frankness it must be said that 
the system of espionage inculcated by the 
Catholic manner of education does not tend 
to increase but rather to diminish the sanc- 
tity of womanhood. A celibate priesthood 
and the auricular confession have also con- 
tributed their part — not a small one — to 
weaken the true sanctions of virtue among 
the women. 

Conditions as to Marriag'e. That all these in- 
iluences have robbed the w^omanhood of 
Mexico of womanly virtue is not, of course, 



132 Mexico To-Day 

wholly true. Yet laxness of standards is 
commoner in that country than it should be. 
The men of the better class disregard social 
conventions most openly, and among the ig- 
norant and poor there is much neglect of 
marriage. At this point should be entered 
another count in the charge against the Eom- 
ish Church, namely, that its priests are ac- 
customed to charge prohibitive prices for 
celebrating marriages, while at the same 
time teaching the people that civil marriage 
is sinful and the ceremony void. To get the 
blessing of the Church on his wedding costs 
a working man a sum of money — required in 
advance — which is essentially prohibitive. 
He simply cannot save that much. The re- 
sult has been and still is that thousands of 
couples live together for years without be- 
ing married and hundreds of thousands of 
children are born out of wedlock. It often 
happens that before converts can be received 
into a Protestant Church they have to be 
married, though at the time they may have 
well grown and numerous children. 

The Degradation of Womanliood. The direct 
tendency of such a state of things is the 
degradation of womanhood. When the 
sanctions of law and of conscience fail be- 
cause both human and divine laws are set 




STKBET GAMBLING 
GROUP OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN 



Social and Moral Inheritances 133 

aside, then public respect soon follows. So- 
ciety does not take lightly the disregarding 
of its conventions and rules. Many other 
consequences follow in the train of such dis- 
regard. The worst of all is woman's loss of 
respect for herself. The regard of society 
at large, the respect of the public, the re- 
spect and esteem even of her own husband, 
she can better dispense with than with her 
own self-esteem. When that is gone, all is 
gone. 

The Mexican Woman. The conditions which 
I have been describing obtain, of course, 
chiefly among the poorer classes. But it is 
these classes which make up the preponder- 
ating element in the population of Mexico. 
As modern educational methods spread, the 
people are rising in the scale of intelligence 
and influence. It is of the utmost impor- 
tance that they rise also in the scale of 
morals. Otherwise the future population of 
Mexico will be poisoned in its very fountain- 
head. Notliing but the uplifting and stimu- 
lating influence of genuine Christian educa- 
tion can furnish an antidote to the evil 
already injected into the life of the people. 
And the womanhood of that land — amiable, 
domestic, warm-hearted, vivacious, patient, 
industrious — the womanhood of Mexico, 



134 Mexico To-Day 

which has suffered so many wrongs, borne 
them so nobly, achieved already so fair a 
fame, will be the first and greatest gainer in 
the coming intellectual and moral rebirth of 
their country. 

Convent Ideal in Education. The training of 
the women among the more favored ele- 
ments in Mexican society has been lightly 
touched upon. The convent idea of purity 
and holiness — a purity which can only be 
guaranteed by vows and an impassable wall 
— does little to strengthen the moral fiber of 
girls. Schoolgirls under the convent sys- 
tem are constantly watched. They infer, by 
the very force of circumstances, that they 
are kept from sin only by influences outside 
themselves. The effect of all this on their 
standards of thinking cannot be happy. In 
their homes, as daughters and wives, they 
are treated with the same open want of con- 
fidence. No young woman sees gentlemen 
friends alone. Courting must be done sur- 
reptitiously through iron-barred windows. 
The bars over the windows in Mexican 
homes are designed quite as much to keep 
women in as to keep burglars out. The 
whole system is ridiculous, of course, and is 
rapidly yielding to enlightened public sen- 
timent. But it has done its part in working 



Social and Moral Inheritances 135 

disaster in not a few directions to Mexican 
society of yesterday and to-day. 

Domestic Drudges. One thing more I must 
mention before dismissing this subject of 
the social status of Mexico's women. Those 
of the poorer classes are slaves to a most 
cumbersome form of housework. Mention 
has been made of the com cakes or tortillas 
which are the staple food of the people of 
this class. The grinding of the corn for 
these cakes is a never-ending task for the 
women. The grains of Indian corn are 
soaked in weak lye or a solution of lime till 
the husk dissolves. They are then while 
still moist put into the mill. This is not 
the round mill of Palestine, of which two 
women together turn the upper stone. The 
upper stone of the Mexican mill does not 
turn. It is a short stone, the size of a man's 
arm, called a mano, that is rubbed up and 
down on the face of the lower stone, which is 
set in a sloping position. Both stones are 
of hard volcanic rock, and the implement is 
called a metate. It is operated by a single 
woman, who kneels and patiently scrubs the 
heavy pestle up and down, laid sidewise on 
the face of the metate and held by each end, 
much as a washerwoman uses a wash-board. 
The product of the moist hominy (nisJita- 



136 Mexico To-Day 

mal) macerated tlins is dough, rather than 
flour, a damp mass, which is at once patted 
into thin cakes and baked. Made from se- 
lected corn these tortillas are very good and 
wholesome, but the making of them is a 
slavish drudgery. Many a time when enter- 
tained in humble Mexican homes I have 
heard when first awake in the darkness and 
chill of the early morning the dull scrub, 
scrub of the mano on the metate. The 
house-mother was already up and on her 
knees at the task of bread-making for the 
family, a task that not only consumes hours 
of time but entails the heaviest kind of 
manual labor. And many other forms of 
woman's work have been in Mexico equally 
primitive and exacting, demanding an ex- 
penditure of energy and of time that has 
stood much in the way of her intellectual 
progress and higher moral enlightenment. 

Churcli and Public Scliools. The hostility of \ 
the Catholic Church to the public school sys- ; 
tern has done much mischief. In the first 
place it has hindered the cause of education, 
and education is one of Mexico's most crying 
needs. Besides, in the second place, this an- 
tagonism of the Church to the public school 
reacts directly on public morals. Since the 
Church condemns the schools, all who send 




WOMAN WHO WALKED 100 MILES TO FIND A PROTESTANT 

CHURCH 



Social and Moeal Inheritances 137 

to them, all wlio teach in them, all who are 
taught, must look upon themselves as sinners 
— whether they will or not. Their consciences 
are ^ ' offended. ' ' In retaliation or in despera- 
tion they often become or proclaim themselves 
unbelievers or atheists. Even young women, 
studying in the state normal schools and 
prospective teachers of the country's chil- 
dren, have to think of themselves as defiant 
unbelievers. The Church — Christianity — and 
education are thus set in antagonism. Ee- 
ligion and morality part company. That 
which should be a saving force in society 
becomes a destructive influence. 

The Clinrch in Mexico. It is through this 
and other similar proceedings that the Cath- 
olic Church has about lost its hold upon the 
thinking people of Mexico. In fact it has 
but slight power over the thought of any 
class ; such grasp as remains to it is because 
of custom and tradition rather than by rea- 
soned conclusions. This fact accounts for 
the surprising progress of the Protestant 
Churches. But only a beginning has been 
made in remedying the situation. Purer 
forms of Christianity are unknown to them. 
Unless religion can be presented to them in 
terms adjusted to their present standards of 
intellectual and industrial advance, and to 



138 Mexico To-Day 

their ideals for the futnre, they will suffer ir- 
re^Darable harm. To remedy their deep- 
seated conviction that Christianity is the foe 
of enlightenment and to place religion in its 
proper relation, as the ally of all that makes 
for progress and national well-being as well 
as the salvation of the people from degrading 
superstition and open sin, is an undertaking 
which the evangelical churches having entered 
upon cannot follow up too earnestly. 

Need of the Master. I am conscious that this 
is a most incomplete and fragmentary account 
of the social and moral conditions obtaining 
to-day in Mexico, and of the reasons for them. 
I have not sought to paint a black picture, 
but limitations of space have made it impos- 
sible to soften and qualify. I am sure that 
those conditions are improving. And I am 
equally sure that no other influence for their 
betterment can begin to compare with the 
gospel of Jesus Christ, which has a healing 
touch for both the intellectual and the moral 
life. Its effect upon a nation, upon the 
women of a nation, especially, who are the 
mothers of the nation to be, is symbolized 
by the experience of that woman who, draw- 
ing near to the Master in the midst of a 
throng, timidly touched his garment. In- 
stantly she knew within herself that she was 



SociAjL AND Moral. Inheritances 139 

healed, while all the hands and voices of the 
multitude could not conceal from him the 
sense that a hand of faith — the tender, ap- 
pealing, soothing, ministering hand of a 
woman — had been stretched out to him. So 
Mexico stretches out her hand to-day. In the 
midst of the hurrying, careless throng, let us 
pray that with it she may reach the garment 
of One who is able to heal all her diseases. 



THE INTELLECTUAL AWAKENING 

DUEING THE NINETEENTH 

CENTUEY 



The progress made in education has been great in the 
last quarter of a century. Unfortunately reliable statistics 
up to date are not available; but there is evidence to show 
that the number of public schools is over ten thousand, and 
the attendance well on toward a million pupils. Since re- 
ligious toleration has come again to recognize that the 
Roman Catholics even have some rights, there are many 
parochial schools under charge of priests or nuns. There 
are, besides, many private, religious, and association schools 
giving education to something like a quarter of a million 
pupils. Higher, technical, and special education is ad- 
mirably cared for. — Joseph King Goodrich. 

The reaction against the tyranny of the Roman Catholic 
Church has driven thousands of the thinking men of Mexico 
completely over to unbelief in all of its various forms. 
Atheism, agnosticism, pantheism, spiritualism, and almost 
every other " ism " in which men have tried to satisfy their 
spiritual natures are rampant. At least seventy-five per 
cent, of the male population who can read and write are 
unbelievers. Many of them outwardly conform to _ the 
Catholic Church by going to mass once a year, but it is 
done only to save social ostracism or assure stability in 
business. Nature's barriers, enactments of man, and un- 
belief are thus the three great towers of the fortress which 
stand in the way of the rapid march of the gospel army. 
The first is gradually giving way before the advance of 
railroads and progressive public officers who are construct- 
ing good roads. The second will be removed when the 
country is thoroughly prepared for it. The last is the 
greatest and is most strongly built. It is far easier to 
transplant faith than to grow it anew. — W. E. Vanderhilt. 



CHAPTEE V 

THE INTELLECTUAL AWAKENING DURING THE 
NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Beginning of a New Day. Though the new 
intellectual movement in Mexico did not pro- 
gress continuously throughout the whole of 
the last century, it practically began with 
the century. Its progress was by ebb and 
flow, sudden starts of feverish arousement 
alternating with long stretches of apathy. 
But of all the several impulses which suc- 
cessively stirred the soul of the nation, none 
was more vital, more fertilizing, more finally 
and essentially sigTiificant than the political 
revolution begun in 1810. 

Shock of Political Kevolution. In 1776 the 
British colonists of North America had sent 
into the beclouded political atmosphere of 
the world the electric shock of their declara- 
tion of independence. Fifteen years later 
the awful upheaval of the French Eevolu- 
tion followed. Both had essentially the 
same effect. Both profoundly impressed 
the world, because each of them was a fresh 

143 



144 Mexico To-Day 

declaration of tlie rights of man. Succeed- 
ing the chaos of the Middle Ages had come a 
long period of emphasis on government, on 
law, on power, on the divine right of kings. 
But the Beformation began at last to sow 
the seeds of the emancipation of the indi- 
vidual. The art of printing came in just 
then, and set these seeds flying upon all the 
winds. The minds of men — of all sorts and 
conditions of men — began to stir at this new 
stimulus. 

Napoleon and American Liberty. The politi- 
cal liberation of the Spanish colonies in 
America came about as a secondary reaction 
from the French Eevolution, and that in a 
most unexpected way. The French Revolu- 
tion made a way for the first Napoleon, and 
Napoleon, before he was done giving rein 
to his vast ambitions, so shook Spain, among 
other European countries, that her colonies 
fell away from her. The patriot cause in 
those various colonies had made but meager 
headway toward the goal of liberation till 
the hands of the mother country were weak- 
ened by the little Corsican. In Mexico there 
was the singular spectacle toward the last 
of a revolt against the Spanish crown by 
the Catholics, on the ground that the mon- 
archy of Spain was no longer a ' ' holy Cath- 



The Intellectual Awakening 145 

olic '' institution. When this element in the 
Mexican population, always before tories 
and loyalists, fell in with the rebels, inde- 
pendence was instantly achieved. Spain at 
the time (1821) was helpless, being torn with 
an inner struggle between republican and 
monarchical parties. Thus liberty, for 
which Hidalgo and Morelos and Allende and 
hundreds of other Mexican patriots had 
poured out their lives, in vain, as it then 
seemed, and which during a ten years' strug- 
gle had appeared an ever-receding, unattain- 
able dream, suddenly came to Mexico over- 
night, as it were. Men woke up and rubbed 
their eyes to find themselves free. 

Preedoin Av/akens. Naturally such an event 
shook the whole intellectual life of the nation 
to its very roots. People asked themselves. 
What is this independencia about which 
everybody is shouting? What is it to be 
free? What kind of government shall we 
have now? That was nearly a hundred years 
ago. The questions are, for many of the 
people, unanswered still. For Mexico had 
to learn that to political liberty — if it is to 
be maintained — must be added the liberation 
mentally of the individual from ignorance, 
superstition, and folly, and his moral re- 
demption from the shackles of sin. It has 



146 Mexico To-Day 

been for her a hard lesson, and it is not yet 
fully learned. No student of the history of 
the people can fail, however, to observe the 
profound change in their intellectual life 
wrought by this burst of the sunlight of lib- 
erty. They were not yet free, but their 
country was free. They called themselves 
free. They thought now of their land as a 
national entity, entitled henceforth to its 
separate and unfettered life. The thought 
was an enchanting one. They drank it in 
like wine. It stirred in them a deep-seated, 
inextinguishable patriotism. Buoyed by the 
success of their near neighbors on the north 
they determined to have a republic, a gov- 
ernment of the people, by the people. 

Ideals and AcMevement. It might be sus- 
pected from the indifferent success which 
Mexico has had in evolving a stable govern- 
ment that her ideas of popular rule are 
poorly defined. That is true, in a sense, as 
we shall presently see, but not in the sense 
that the ideals embodied in her constitutions 
and institutions have been defective. The 
leaders in the great struggle for free gov- 
ernment have always known thoroughly the 
essential principles of such government. 
They have studied and followed as models 
the best known republican constitutions. 



The Intellectual Awakening 147 

The Constitution of the United States is the 
principal basis of the two or three similar 
documents that Mexico has successively 
adopted. It is not to theoretical defects 
of this kind that the comparative failure of 
her experiments is to be traced. The consti- 
tutions were good enough. The reasons 
why they would not '' march " are to be 
sought in the people. After what they 
had gone through with during three hun- 
dred years of training in submission, in 
obedience, in servility and accepted inferi- 
ority, it was not possible that any miracle of 
mere political liberation should change them 
in a day or a year into intelligent, composed, 
self-respecting, and self-controlled citizens 
of an autonomous republic. That transfor- 
mation has not even yet been fully wrought. 
What had been three hundred years in do- 
ing has not been undone in one hundred 
vears. 

Two Points of Contact. For our purpose 
here we dwell on two points only at which 
the political revolution touched the intellec- 
tual life of the people. Of course there were 
many other points of contact, but these seem 
the most significant. The first is the one 
above hinted at, namely, the tremendous 
awakening and vivif^ang effect of the forma- 



148 Mexico To-Day 

tion of a new national ideal. They all, down 
to the humblest, went through the experi- 
ence of transferring their allegiance from a 
king, looked up to as a vicegerent of heaven, 
to a patria, a native land, a government set 
up by themselves. This deep and wide in- 
tellectual upheaval was wonderfully fertiliz- 
ing. It set the people to thinking of a thou- 
sand things. The authority of the crown 
had always been allied, in the thought of the 
people at least, with that of the Church. 
Men now began to inquire why, if one had 
been thrown off, the other should still be tol- 
erated. Unfortunately for her, Catholicism 
had no reply to make to these inquiries. 
Hitherto reasonings had been simply stifled. 
Men had had to yield to authority, in Church 
and state, because it was authority. No 
questions were answered. None were al- 
lowed to be asked. Now had come a time 
when mere authority did not suffice to hush 
men. Their minds, thoroughly aroused, re- 
fused to stop inquiring. Free speech might 
be silenced; it often was; but thought went 
on and on. 

Popular Education. The other arousing in- 
iBuence directly traceable to the new political 
situation was the emphasis placed on popu- 
lar education. Practically all the great pa- 



The Intellectual Awakening 149 

triots who had to do with laying the founda- 
tion of the new Spanish American govern- 
ments understood the fundamental impor- 
tance, the necessity even, of educating the 
people — all the people, since all of the peo- 
ple are citizens and sovereigns. Now this 
undertaking is in Mexico as yet only an 
ideal, a dream, largely unrealized. Yet the 
very fact that such a dream has been 
dreamed, such an ideal set up, has made a 
profound stir. The thought has run like an 
electric current through all the national 
fiber. Unlettered men and women in remote 
villages and ranches have thought and talked 
of a time when there shall be schools every- 
where, for everybody. Their sons, or their 
grandsons, they say, will see this, if they 
themselves do not. And the young people 
growing up have heard the talk and it has 
awakened in them a longing for schooling 
and the things of books. So it has happened 
that wherever enterprising governors or 
municipalities have pressed the work of es- 
tablishing public schools they have found a 
constituency ready for them. And wherever 
the Protestant Churches have found it pos- 
sible to open schools, students have flocked 
to them. Even the Catholic Church has 
been forced by this demand to enter, if re- 



150 Mexico To-Day 

luctantly and, for the most part, rather in- 
efficiently, upon the task of teaching, and its 
schools too are crowded. There is, in short, 
universal approval of the idea of educating 
the people. Nobody whose opinion is worth 
while now opposes universal schooling. It 
is an accepted axiom of the national life. It 
is not yet in practise, but the limitation is 
because of the system and the equipment, 
not for the lack of a demand. 

Education the Motlier of Ideas. This national 
turning from a long period of contented 
ignorance to an epoch of universal devotion 
to the idea of education is a revolution in 
the mental life and habits of the people that 
is absolutely fundamental. It is an awaken- 
ing, a real new birth. It is the fruitful 
mother of a whole flock of stimulating and 
arousing ideas; ideas that have spread like 
a contagion throughout the people during 
the passing of the century just closed. 

Economic Awakening. Next in importance 
to this awakening of the national pride of 
freedom and the desire for letters — intellec- 
tual and moral influences strictly, both of 
them — is the mental reaction aroused by the 
new industrialism. Of this on every hand 
are instances — tragic, stirring, melancholy, 
often ludicrous. The tremendous natural 




CHILDREN OF MEXICO 



The Intellectual Awakenii^g 151 

resources of the country attracted to it 
abundance of capital as soon as tlie govern- 
ment became stable enough to offer protec- 
tion. Mines were opened, railway lines 
built, telegraphs established, manufactories 
inaugurated. It was foreign capital largely 
that did this, for most of the money of Mex- 
ico was in the hands of the old, wealthy fam- 
ilies, of people who are usually excessively 
timid. They distrusted and disliked the 
new order of things, and it was next to im- 
possible to persuade them to invest their 
funds. With the foreign money came the 
foreigners too, with their novel ideas, unfa- 
miliar articles, new ways, strange speech, 
odd modes of thought, opening up every- 
where channels of communication with the 
big modern world outside, so long, for Mex- 
ico, unknown and remote. 

Common Carriers of Ideas. The railroads, 
for example, were a huge entering wedge for 
modern ideas. Conservative influence was 
everywhere used against them. The people 
heard strange stories about the locomotives 
— that they were living monsters, infernal 
creatures, full of fire and terror, devouring 
wood and coal and perhaps also children, 
and screaming loudly for more. Besides 
they moved so rapidly that people and chick- 



152 Mexico To-Day 

ens and dogs and donkeys were continually 
getting ground up under their terrible 
wheels. In 1884 I rode from Mexico City 
several miles to a suburban town on a car 
drawn by mules. Noticing that the track 
was ballasted and laid with rather heavy 
steel, I asked the reason of such unusual 
extravagance. It transpired that the road 
had had at first steam engines for drawing 
the cars, but so much prejudice had been 
excited by the smashing up of chickens and 
goats and by the breathless and unnecessary 
haste with which the trains moved, that the 
company was forced to take off the engines 
and use mules! 

Policy of President Diaz. The government, 
however, under President Diaz especially, 
steadily promoted the building of railways. 
They were needed for the industrial develop- 
ment of the country and quite as much for 
the purposes of the government itself. The 
more difficult and unpromising lines were 
therefore heavily subsidized out of govern- 
ment funds, special provision being made at 
the same time for the use of tracks and 
trains whenever required by the govern- 
ment. These government funds but in- 
creased the tide of foreign money which 
poured into the country. Labor was in de- 



The Intellectual Awakening 153 

mand as never before. The peons from the 
haciendas and mines were astounded at the 
offer of wages double their usual pay for 
labor on construction and maintenance. 
They were frequently hauled free halfway 
across the country simply to get them to 
where they were needed. Strange modes of 
work, strange tools, vehicles, and imple- 
ments — dynamite, steam shovels, pile-driv- 
ers, derrick engines — the bustle and stimu- 
lation of construction camps where the ends 
of the earth come together — for it was im- 
possible that Irish paddy, Chinese cook, and 
darky camp-follower should fail to appear 
on a scene like that, to say nothing of en- 
gineers and their helpers, American, Eng- 
lish, and Scotch — opened up for these dusky 
toilers from remote farms and villages a 
whole new world. Their sons later got to 
be brakemen, messenger boys, stokers, tele- 
graph operators, conductors. They them- 
selves developed a mania for train riding 
and explored the length and breadth of their 
broad country. They saw newspapers, 
fruits, and candies for sale that had come 
from beyond the border, from that great 
land to the north that had always before 
seemed to them so far away. They heard 
their beautiful language ruthlessly butch- 



154 Mexico To-Day 

ered by big, blonde fellows, who though they 
could not speak Spanish knew a thousand 
things and could v/ork marvelous doings and 
achieve impossible undertakings. 

Stimulus of Hew Things. So profound and 
widespread an industrial change, affecting 
the most intimate affairs of the humblest 
and most ignorant of the people, wrought 
mightily to arouse the mind of all. The 
people had to face a thousand new ideas 
and relations. They discussed among them- 
selves, they meditated at length, they can- 
vassed from every possible angle, all these 
unfamiliar and stunning concepts. Often 
they were forced to give up problems as in- 
soluble. Often they found old faiths and 
fixed beliefs profoundly shaken. There was 
a spirit and an indomitable determination 
about these foreigners that was a source of 
unmeasured wonder to them. Nothing was 
admitted to be impossible. Always a way 
could be found. If a tract of jungle or a wild 
mountain gorge was considered impenetra- 
ble, straightway these americanos plowed 
through it a chasm for their steel rails and 
shrieking locomotives. It is not surprising, 
therefore, that ideas in the moral and intel- 
lectual realm that long had been accepted as 
settled began to lose their fixity and finality. 



The Intellectual Awakening 155 

The resourcefulness and independence of 
their new friends were for the Mexicans con- 
tagious. That spirit of self-reliance, of de- 
termined self-assertion got abroad among 
them. 

Young Ameriea in Mexico. It was especially 
among the young that the new ideas began 
to ferment, the new ways to find acceptance. 
They had been employed perhaps from 
childhood by these foreign railroad people. 
They had picked up no small smattering of 
English from employers who had a way of 
forcing their hands to speak English because 
they themselves could not or would not learn 
Spanish. They were imbued with the desire 
to be up-to-date, in thought and ways. All 
of which things served to shake them free 
of the old customs, more and more. For 
centuries one phrase had exercised in Mex- 
ico a most potent sway. Against all innova- 
tions the sufficient objection could be urged : 
No es costmnbre, — It is not the custom. 
That had long sufficed as a reason for not 
changing. The people argued that if a thing 
had been good enough for their fathers, it 
was good enough for them. Not so these 
youthful imitators of things foreign. They 
thought all the less of a custom or mode of 
thought if it represented the ways of their 



156 Mexico To-Day 

fathers, for their fathers and ancestors 
stood in their minds for industrial ineffi- 
ciency, for an antiquated and no longer pos- 
sible subserviency to old ways merely be- 
cause they are old. The railways and other 
similar public works were, in short, a school 
where the youth of Mexico learned modem 
ways and were awakened to modern concep- 
tions. 

Modern Ways. Quite the same may be said 
of the development of mining, of manufac- 
turing, and even of farming and stock-rais- 
ing. The entrance of foreign capital, the 
opening up of free communication with 
other countries, and the immigration of 
many forceful and efficient foreigners have 
all wrought directly upon the mental habits 
of the Mexican people. In mining opera- 
tions there have been a steady advancement 
of wages and an equally constant improve- 
ment of the conditions of labor. Modern 
factories of many kinds have been estab- 
lished in different sections of the country, 
and the working people are going through 
various stages of adjustment to their new 
conditions, including the organization of 
labor unions, of mutual benefit societies, and 
like agencies. This effort at cooperation 
and organization has been a most wholesome 



The Intellectual. Awakening 157 

influence. The better wages paid under the 
stimulation of industrial prosperity have 
made conditions of living much more toler- 
able than formerly. The people have had 
time and spirit for social activities, and the 
desire of bettering their condition has 
greatly stimulated the organization of vari- 
ous forms of mutual benefit societies. 

Learning to Give and Take. The peculiar 
gain in all this lies principally in the fact 
that the Mexicans have naturally few apti- 
tudes for such organization. Like most 
people newly freed from hard political con- 
ditions they are prone to indulge in an 
exaggerated individualism. They are self- 
assertive, sensitive as to personal honor, 
watchful of rights, ambitious of leadership. 
The various social organizations — ^labor 
unions, mutual insurance societies, debating 
clubs, masonic and other lodges, — have had 
stormy careers. Not seldom they have been 
completely wrecked on the rock of disagree- 
ments among the members. But the dis- 
cipline of trying to adjust themselves to the 
demands of such social experiments, the ef- 
fort at self-command and at mutual surren- 
der for a common cause, has been of incal- 
culable value to the people. It has helped 
to teach them that if a man is to be a sov- 



158 Mexico To-Day 

ereign citizen lie must begin with mastery of 
himself. It has turned the eyes of many 
from the exaggerated egoism natural to 
those who have just found themselves to the 
duty of sacrifice for the common good. It 
has set the common good in its true light as 
more important than the welfare or gratifi- 
cation of any individual — as essential even 
to the welfare of each as well as of all. 

Mexican Characteristics. These influences 
have had some deep-seated national traits to 
which to appeal. The Mexican, in common 
with most men, has a stubborn hatred of in- 
justice. He is, moreover, naturally of a 
sympathetic nature. The adjective in com- 
mon use by which he describes an agreeable, 
attractive person is simpdtico. Though 
sometimes he is seemingly cruel, it is only 
in a childish, thoughtless way. At heart he 
is a tender man, generous to a fault, prodigal 
of time, labor, and money for the benefit of 
his needy fellows. In no country in the 
world are beggars treated with more consid- 
eration or poor relations more generously 
cared for. Besides all this, the long course 
of oppression, civil, ecclesiastical, industrial, 
had welded the people into a unified mass, 
vast, unwieldy, dimly conscious of itself, 
yet essentially one. At last the pressure 



The Intellectual Awakening 159 

which had held it together was withdrawn. 
The centrifugal forces of a new individual- 
ism were threatening to scatter the mass in 
whirring fragments. If its unity was to be 
preserved it must now be by inner attrac- 
tion, by a conscious effort at union and co- 
operation. This crucial demand upon them 
for the study and comprehension of the 
essentials of community action was only 
dimly and vaguely felt by many, but it fur- 
nished a background of courage and of hope 
amid the many humiliating failures at co- 
operative organization through which the 
people had to pass. 

Groping for a Social Standard. It served also, 
and this is especially to our purpose, as a 
potent and inexhaustible stimulant to the in- 
tellectual life of the people. Like the set- 
ting up of the standard of political liberty, 
dependent on the eternal vigilance of those 
who would be free, it aroused men to think 
who were not used to think, for whom it is 
hard to think — an unaccustomed effort to 
which they adjust themselves with extreme 
difficulty. The methods and detail of or- 
ganization, the rules of procedure, estab- 
lished in other lands on the basis of long ex- 
perience, the benefits to be derived from 
joint action and to be forfeited by the want 



160 Mexico To-Day 

of it, all these became the subject of pro- 
found and persistent study. It made men 
read, it furnished stock for endless conver- 
sation and argument, it forced them into 
contact with the world, hitherto so remote 
and unknown, and like the influence of the 
railroads, became really a course of study, 
a college, a university for developing the 
minds of all the people. 

A national Press. Of other elements in the 
national awakening we have yet to mention 
one which was among the most potent, and 
which, though a little hard to isolate from, 
other related influences, merits separate and 
special discussion, and that is the develop- 
ment of a national press. So general was 
illiteracy throughout the country after inde- 
pendence was achieved that this develop- 
ment was a slow one. Liberty of the press 
was proclaimed from the beginning. But for 
a long time it was far from being realized. 
Under Spanish rule there was, of course, no 
pretense of such a thing. The Spanish gov- 
ernment, like the Catholic Church, exercised 
an open and severe censorship. People were 
allowed to print and to read only what their 
mentors thought would be good for them. 
After the beginning of the experiment at 
self-government it was soon found that gen- 



The Intellectual. Awakening 161 

erals and Presidents were when in power 
uncommonly sensitive to public criticism. 
A judicious critic of Latin America lias said 
that one of the failings of the people of these 
nations is that they so often take words for 
deeds. Something of that has from the be- 
ginning been witnessed in the attitude of 
public men to the press. In Mexico it has 
been the rule rather than the exception that 
men in authorit}^ have suppressed the peri- 
odicals which criticized them or their poli- 
cies, and have tolerated only those that 
would deal out fulsome praise. 

Steady Gains. Nevertheless the gradual ex- 
tension of the schools, of one kind or an- 
other, the steady rise of the people in the 
scale of literacy, working together with the 
great democratic principle of a free press, 
have stimulated the growth and independ- 
ence of the newspapers. In recent years 
they have greatly multiplied. In one form 
or another, as trade journals, literary publi- 
cations, political organs, or mere newspa- 
pers, they have now pretty well extended 
themselves over the whole nation. They go 
into village and hamlet, as well as into city 
and town, and they are read till they are 
w^orn out. The people who cannot read — 
and the proportion of these, except in remote 



162 Mexico To-Day 

Indian settlements, is rapidly diminishing — 
have the papers read aloud to them. White 
paper is expensive in Mexico as are other es- 
sentials of the printer's art, and the periodi- 
cals are apt to be cheap looking and shabby. 
But they are having a tremendous influence. 
The ideas and the news which the}^ dissemi- 
nate and the desire for knowledge and learn- 
ing which they awaken are among the out- 
standing elements in the general intellectual 
awakening concerning T\^hich our study is 
now occupied. As in other and more favored 
lands, the '^ free press " is by no means 
always free. Sinister influences of various 
kinds secure control of these organs of 
'^ public opinion." Newspapers, like men, 
may be victims of many other forms of ser- 
vitude besides being subservient to a tyran- 
nical government. Even the news columns 
are invaded, and ends of a secret and selfish 
character are sought in the very manner of 
placing the news of the world before the 
reading public. But while all these influ- 
ences are more easily exercised among an 
inexperienced and simple class of readers 
than among those who are prepared by long 
training to understand the drift and mean- 
ing of things, it is still better for people to 
read than not to read. And whether for bet- 



The Intellectual. Awakening 163 

ter or for worse, the die is cast. The peri- 
odicals of Mexico are rapidly making a read- 
ing people of the inhabitants of that coun- 
try. This profound change in the mental 
atmosphere in which they move is one which 
must be taken account of in summing up the 
elements of the modern intellectual move- 
ment. 

Cosmopolitan Consciousness. Closely akin to 
the newspapers and their influence, is the 
arousing quality of contact with the world 
through modern methods of travel and 
intercommunication. The train service, the 
telegraph and cable, the telephone and 
■Dost-office are all carriers of ideas. Bar- 
riers of nationality and of language offer 
dijSiculties, but they are temporary and 
far from invincible. The train that carries 
only Texans in Texas may roll across tlie 
border to be loaded with Spanish-speaking 
Mexicans. The signs of the Morse alphabet 
can be made to spell out words in Chinese 
or Aztec, and the telephone carries a con- 
versation in Spanish quite as cheerfully and 
as clearly as one in English. The fact that 
people all over the world are availing them- 
selves of modern modes of rapid and distant 
travel and of modern means of conveying 
ideas where it is not desired to convey 



164 Mexico To^Day 

bodies, is bringing the whole world to a com- 
munity of thought. It is a most stirring 
thing, too, to feel that you are one with the 
great and widespread human race, that you 
are thinking the same thoughts with your 
brother over seas or at the antipodes. 

Awakening to World-wide Influences. It would 
be an interesting study, were there space 
for it, to trace the numerous ways in which 
this sense of mental touch with the world 
silently affects the thinking of a people. 
There are standards of opinion and judg- 
ment embodied in the very phrases which be- 
come current and which insensibly press in 
upon the fixed ideas of non-progressive and 
isolated people. We have in Spain to-day 
the spectacle of a people held fast in the 
chains of authority and restrained at every 
point from responding to the modern cur- 
rents of thought which from every quarter 
blow upon it. Yet so potent are these silent 
forces of the spirit of the times that even 
the people of Spain, illiterate and apparently 
helpless as they are, seem about to break 
over the barriers set up by both Church and 
state, and assert their right to be a part of 
the modern, progressive world. 

Rapid Transformation. Under the protection 
of the excellent laws and policing, people from 



The Intellectual Awakening 165 

other countries traveled all over Mexico and 
many of them settled down to business or 
professional pursuits. 

Spread of the English Language. Within 

twenty years the English language from be- 
ing a novelty when heard on the streets came 
to be a commonplace almost everywhere. I 
was once (about 1892) detained by a storm 
of rain in an Indian village on Lake Patz- 
cuaro. The railroad had but lately pene- 
trated that region and the life of the Tarasco 
Indians was, as it still is, exceedingly primi- 
tive. The family with whom I found lodg- 
ing and a warm welcome had but a dirt 
floor hut, with a very small and low 
'' lean-to '^ as kitchen and dining-room. I 
could only get into this room in a sitting 
posture, and the one part of the main room 
where I could stand upright was in the hole 
left for the ladder which led to the '' loft," 
with my head and shoulders in the second 
story! The warmth of the kitchen fire was 
shared by a cat and dog. The cat caused 
the family great merriment by sitting on a 
warm stone till she fell asleep and then nod- 
ding till she rolled in the hot ashes. This 
happened several times, causing each time 
shouts of laughter. The dog was a great 
favorite and made himself much at home. 



166 Mexico To-Day 

My hosts spoke Spanish with considerable 
difficulty, talking always among themselves 
their native Tarasco. This is a beautiful 
language, by the way, in sound considerably 
resembling English. They frequently ad- 
dressed the dog by a name which I took to be 
Indian, as I was sure it was not Spanish. Fi- 
nally I said, ^ ^ What is the name you give the 
dog! " They laughed and looked surprised. 
^' Popepy, popepy," they said, ^^ English, 
you know; American name: popepy. Isn't 
that right! " I then discovered that they 
were calling him '^ puppy,'' a word which 
they had learned from a young Mexican 
preacher who had visited them the year be- 
fore and who had a smattering of English. 
This discovery of my native tongue in that 
strange out-of-the-way setting was as sur- 
prising to me as was the fact that they 
dragged out for me a cheap American can- 
vas cot on which to sleep. It also had been 
left by the young preacher, and frightfully 
cold it proved, that raw, rainy night. 

Educational Statistics Impossible. The lack of 
properly kept records makes it difficult to 
trace the educational development of Mex- 
ico. During the administration of Presi- 
dent Diaz much attention was given to public 
schools. The Federal District and the terri- 



The Intellectual Awakening 167 

tories under federal control had excellent 
systems provided for them by congress. A 
number of the states followed with plans for 
rural schools and for the supervision of 
those established by municipalities, with 
compulsory laws, state normal schools, and 
other advanced features. The plans adopted 
were modern and admirable, but the course 
of development was everywhere slow. 
There was no adequate supply of teachers 
and supervisors. The influence of the 
Church was thrown against the whole insti- 
tution, including, of course, the state normal 
schools. The people were not yet really 
hungry for enlightenment, and so were 
easily discouraged. The schools themselves 
were usually rather crude affairs. The cus- 
tom of conning lessons aloud was general. 
A busy primary school could easily be heard 
a block away, and the strident yells of en- 
thusiastic little Indians were enough to 
make tatters of any teacher's nerves. 

School Situation To-day. The political dis- 
turbances of the last two years have pret- 
ty effectually wrecked the public school 
work. The Federal Minister of Education 
recently issued an estimate that probably 
seventy-five per cent, of the Mexican people 
are still illiterate. This is undoubtedly an 



168 Mexico To-Day 

exaggeration, indulged in, seemingly, for 
political effect. Going over the matter care- 
fully with a Mexican friend, a gentleman 
who was for eleven years president of the 
state normal school and superintendent of 
primary education for the state of Coahuila, 
I have reached the conclusion that fifty per 
cent, of illiterates is as high a rate as need 
fee charged against the Mexican people of 
to-day. A hundred years ago it was about 
ninety per cent. 

Demand for Letters. But while the public 
school work has of late been interrupted, the 
demand for schooling has been greatly in- 
tensified. The recent political disturbances 
have been distinctively popular movements 
— excepting, of course, the coup of Diaz and 
Huerta against Madero. They have pro- 
foundly stirred popular thought. They put 
a premium on reading and intelligence. One 
result is that mission schools are crowded as 
never before. Newspapers are springing 
up everywhere. They are eagerly taken 
and read, and the people who cannot read 
bewail it and wish to send their children to 
school. 

Everybody is Thinking Now. The arousing 
effect of these recent political events has 
been, indeed, almost equal to that exercised 



The Intellectual Awakening 169 

by tlie great revolution of a Imndred years 
ago. In a general way tlie country is much 
worse off for these revolutions. Farming 
and commerce are paralyzed and fighting and 
pillage have caused immense damage. I met 
a Mexican laborer on the street in El Paso, 
Texas, while the fighting in Mexico City was 
in progress last February. He had a small 
Spanish newspaper in his hand, and I began 
a conversation by asking what was the news. 
The paper contained nothing new, but we 
proceeded to exchange items. I was im- 
pressed that the feeling uppermost in his 
mind was one of shame that his countrymen 
should fall out and fight in the heart of the 
capital. ^^ That is the one beautiful city 
that we Mexicans have,'' he mourned, '' and 
now they are ruining it with their cannon." 
I tried to draw him out as to his political 
preferences, but he was too cautious. Yet I 
did not doubt he had opinions and only con- 
cealed them because I was a stranger to him. 
A New Public Opinion. That is the one dis- 
tinct gain that the visitor to Mexico to-day 
will note. There is at last beginning to be 
such a thing there as public opinion. Ambi- 
tious leaders are finding that the people can 
no longer be driven like sheep. Greneral 
Reyes tried to start a revolution against 



170 Mexico To-Day 

Madero, but nobody would rally to him. He 
was a very popular man, too. Madero tried 
to raise an army, but the people would not 
enlist. Huerta has laid violent hands on the 
presidency, but the people disapprove of 
him as a usurper, a man whose hands are 
stained with blood. They will not enlist in 
his army at double wages even. The sleep- 
ing giant is awakening. The long sub- 
merged and disregarded common people 
of Mexico are coming to a consciousness of 
themselves. They are longing for light and 
help. Never before was the way so wide 
open for the Christian teacher. 

Are We Grood Neighbors? Of course in a 
national transition of this sort there are 
many grotesque and even absurd contrasts. 
Often the people go so fast that there is a 
reaction. We Americans have not always 
been happy in our representatives in Mex- 
ico. All sorts of adventurers have crossed 
the Eio Grande, some for their own and 
their country's good. Many who were not 
mere adventurers have been harsh and un- 
sympathetic in their attitude toward the 
Mexicans. Thus, though we are their near- 
est neighbors, though we have more that 
they wish and need than any other people, of 
both institutions and commerce, though we 



The Intellectual Awakening 171 

have successfully established the kind of 
government that they are striving for, 
though our political constitution is the model 
for theirs, though, in short, we are their 
natural neighbors and helpers and big 
brothers, we have played the part but poorly 
and have no very strong hold on their re- 
gard. The memory of the unfortunate war 
of 1845 rankles yet in the thought of many. 
Our rough ways and bad manners do not fit 
us for the work of conciliation. Many of 
our people, in personal contact with the 
Mexicans, have been and are rude and un- 
feeling. Our tremendous wealth has put 
many of the great and productive enter- 
prises throughout Mexico under American 
control. That is not a pleasant thing for 
Mexicans to contemplate. So a spasm of 
an ti- Americanism not unfrequently passes 
over the country. "We are not, as we ought 
to be, the most popular people with them. 
Fortunately the two governments, especially 
since we helped Mexico in her great struggle 
with France and Maximilian, have been on 
the best of terms with each other. Not even 
sharp friction along the border from time to 
time, or the fomenting of Mexican revolu- 
tions on American soil, has availed to dis- 
turb this peaceful relationship. This state 



172 Mexico To-Day 

of things should by all means be perpetu- 
ated. Public sentiment in both nations 
ought to demand it. We should not inter- 
vene by sending soldiers to Mexico. That 
would be terrible, disastrous. But out of 
our strength and abundance we ought to 
send to our needy neighbor teachers, evan- 
gelists, friends. These will be made wel- 
come. They will win for us the eternal 
gratitude and good-will of an entire nation. 



THE PROTESTANT MOVEMENT 



There is another, if possible sadder, fact. The Indians, 
or more than half the population, though counted as mem- 
bers of the Roman communion, never have had an oppor- 
tunity to know what Christianity is. They have been left 
without education, without Bibles, and have been permitted 
to mingle their ancient rites and superstitions with some 
of the outward forms of Christianity. Indians in feather 
plumage dancing at the sacred shrine of Guadalupe; niches, 
side by side, in villages and roadways, to the Virgin of 
Guadalupe and to the Aztec war god, Huitzilopochtli, are 
some current evidences of the criminal negligence of the 
Roman priesthood, a negligence that has covered three cen- 
turies. How shall Protestant Christians do their part 
toward the salvation of these millions? — John W. Butler. 

Why play at missions with such a magnificent opportu- 
nity as presents itself on this field? A compact city with a 
population larger than was reported for at least two of 
the states of our great union at the last census, and nearly 
two and one-half times as great as the population of one 
of them. In view of the vast resources which God has 
placed in the hands of North American Christians does not 
this condition in a great North American city seem pitiable 
in the extreme? We certainly have neglected some vast 
opportunities on our own continent. Who could ask for a 
better opportunity of investing a few thousand dollars 
where his investment would bring quick returns in evan- 
gelizing a great city? — L. E. Troyer. 



CHAPTEE VI 

THE PROTESTANT MOVEMENT 

Breaking" away from Catholicism. The French 
intervention and the brief and fatal empire 
of Maximilian of Austria were in reality a 
sort of last, desperate stand on the part of 
the Church party in Mexico. After an alli- 
ance Avith the civil government of the coun- 
try which had continued for more than three 
hundred years, enabling them during all that 
time to proscribe all religious teaching ex- 
cept their own, Church leaders could ill brook 
the liberal constitution of 1857 and the ac- 
companying ^' Laws of Eeform.'' These 
laws were aimed directly at the special privi- 
leges of the Eoman Church, such as the right 
of ecclesiastics when accused of crime to trial 
in a special court of their own and Church 
control of cemeteries and marriage as well 
as at the immense ecclesiastical realty hold- 
ings and the idle non-producing groups of re- 
ligious devotees. The new property regula- 
tions were similar to the mortmain laws long 
ago enforced in England and more recently 

175 



176 Mexico To-Day 

in France. They forbade the holding of real 
estate by a Church except for immediate use 
in connection with public worship. It was 
this drastic provision, coupled as it was with 
the sequestration of all actual holdings in 
violation of it, which drove the Church party 
in Mexico, after failing in a bloody war, to 
the desperate measure of seeking help in Eu- 
rope, resulting in the French intervention. 

Intellectual Emancipation. AH this took place 
during the dark years of the American Civil 
War, when the government at Washington 
was too deeply engrossed with domestic trou- 
bles to take note of the violation of the Mon- 
roe doctrine. But the ragged patriots of 
Mexico gradually drove back the trained 
French troops under Bazaine and other fa- 
mous leaders, as they had just previously 
discomfited the armies of the conservative 
party in Mexico. By 1867, as we have seen, 
Maximilian was defeated and slain, the 
French troops had been withdrawn — partly 
under pressure from Washington, though the 
king of France was glad of a pretext — and 
the Republic was triumphant in the land of 
the Aztecs. Already during the years of bit- 
ter struggle, when the principles underlying 
republican institutions were being subjected 
to minute study and the Reform Laws had 



The Peotestant Movement 177 

set everybody to examining anew the whole 
subject of religion, many of the thoughtful 
opponents of a political and decadent Church 
had taken occasion to insist that they were not 
hostile to true Christianity. The York Rite 
of masonry, with its exaltation of the Bible, 
had been introduced in spite of savage per- 
secution and in the face of a horrified public 
sentiment. Many public men openly advo- 
cated the introduction of Protestantism as an 
aid in the struggle against religious condi- 
tions which had become intolerable. Presi- 
dent Juarez himself is quoted on excellent 
authority as saying that ' ^ upon the develop- 
ment of Protestantism largely depends the 
future happiness of our country.'' 

Buildings Available. During the administra- 
tion of Juarez, immediately following the 
intervention, the federal government found 
itself in possession of many buildings taken 
from the Catholics. These were not easily 
sold, as anathemas had been launched against 
any who should traffic in what had been con- 
secrated property. The long interdict 
against Protestant societies having been at 
last raised, work was soon begun by several 
evangelical Churches. To one of these, early 
on the ground, a grant was made by the gov- 
ernment of a valuable chapel in the heart of 



178 Mexico To-Day 

Mexico City, and it was enabled also to pur- 
chase on easy terms part of what had been 
the monastery of San Francisco. Other so- 
cieties obtained by purchase from the federal 
authorities valuable locations there and in 
many other cities throughout the country. 

Religious Clubs. A singular phenomenon of 
those troubled years, hinting of the influence 
exerted by that divine Spirit which long ago 
brooded over earth's chaos, was the forma- 
tion of numerous quasi-religious voluntary 
associations — groups of men for study, dis- 
cussion, and mutual benefit. These sprang 
up all over the country. Later, several of 
them were merged into Christian congrega- 
tions. One such group in Mexico City had 
as active leader a soldier named Sosthenes 
Juarez, a relative of the great President. 
He had by accident come into possession of a 
French Bible brought over by one of the 
chaplains of the army of intervention — so 
strangely does God make the wrath of man 
to praise him. This Bible was made the 
nucleus of a voluntary association of men 
whose religious instincts were feeling after 
something that might satisfy them. So pow- 
erfully did the divine Word do its work in 
their minds and hearts that through the in- 
fluence of that one Bible in a language which 



The Peotestant Movement 179 

only a few of them "iinderstood, nearly all of 
them became confessed Christians. Mr. 
Juarez, who was a man of culture and force, 
able to read the Bible in French and trans- 
late it for the benefit of his associates, later 
became a minister of the gospel, and after 
more than twenty years of efficient service in 
that calling died at his post as a soldier of 
the cross. The old French Bible and the 
manuscript regulations of this society, signed 
by all the members, are still preserved in the 
archives of the Board under which Mr. Juarez 
labored. 

Influence of the Bible. This incident illus- 
trates anew how religious awakenings root 
themselves in the Bible. That Book is the ally 
of all intellectual and social struggles after 
better things. It arouses the minds of those 
who touch it for the first time as nothing 
else will, and also profoundly stirs the 
moral conscience. And it does not stop with 
awakening new desires and aspirations; it 
guides as well as awakens. It .makes men 
demand enlightenment. It is the mother of 
the public school. It is the enemy of dark- 
ness. It inspires courage. It drives the hu- 
man mind to test and to investigate. By 
thrusting final responsibility on the individ- 
ual brain and heart, it is in particular the. 



180 Mexico To-Day 

enemy of a religion wMch habitually dele- 
gates authority on the one hand and demands 
submission on the other. The modern evan- 
gelical movement in Mexico rests on Bible 
distribution. Almost immediately after the 
republican government had lifted the em- 
bargo of centuries on Scripture selling, both 
the American Bible Society and the British 
and Foreign Bible Society had agents in 
Mexico. The American Society had already 
for several years been feeling its way into 
the interior near the northern border where 
even during the long war the patriot influence 
was strong enough to protect its workers. 
One of these deserves special mention. Miss 
Melinda Eankin, a missionary on the border 
of Texas among the Mexicans, later made her 
way into the interior of Mexico, as far as 
Monterey, and seeing what was the principal 
need of the people, put herself into touch with 
the American Bible Society and gave about all 
her time to Bible distribution. This was in the 
sixties, prior to and during the French inter- 
vention, and was, to all intents and purposes, 
the beginning of Protestant mission work in 
Mexico. 

Americans in Mexico. The attention of the 
people of the United States was strongly 
drawn to Mexico immediately after the 



Thb Pkotestant Movement " 181 

American Civil War. A considerable group 
of soldiers of fortune from the United States, 
both Northern and Southern, allied them- 
selves with the Juarez government and took 
part in the closing months of the war against 
•Maximilian. Another group, smaller but 
more prominent as to its personnel, of South- 
ern soldiers and sympathizers, left the United 
States and settled in Mexico after the defeat 
of General Lee's armies. The long struggle 
of the Juarez government against a foreign 
invader and its final success, added to the 
popular interest in Mexican affairs. The 
news of the establishment of a republican 
government there, with religious liberty, was 
welcomed everywhere. But it was accom- 
panied by reports of deplorable religious 
and educational conditions. The American 
Churches, therefore, made haste to enter this 
inviting field. Both the government and the 
people were ready to welcome evangelical 
Christianity. And from that day to this no 
other attitude has been shown by them. The 
few instances of local persecution have in- 
variably been disturbances stirred up by the 
priests and other intolerant partizans of the 
Roman Catholic Church. 

Beginning of the Missionary Movement. Ameri- 
can missions began to be rapidly opened up 



182 Mexico To-Day 

in tlie early seventies. Some Baptist groups 
had grown np in the northern districts of 
Mexico in the sixties, related loosely to the 
work of Miss Eankin. Toward the end of 
that same decade a mission was organized in 
Mexico City, first on independent lines. 
Later it was taken over by the mission board 
of the Protestant Episcopal Church. This 
work began nnder peculiarly favorable aus- 
pices. Mr. H. C. Eiley, a missionary from 
South America, who already understood 
Spanish, was at the head of it. The govern- 
ment of President Juarez favored the work 
in the matter of adequate housing, and a 
group of friends of Mr. Riley in the United 
States contributed largely with funds. The 
mission flourished for a decade or more, do- 
ing an especially noteworthy work in the 
training of a group of young Mexican min- 
isters. Several of these young men became 
later, and some of them yet remain, potent 
factors in the progress of Christianity in 
Mexico. 

Some Other Beginnings. The Society of 
Friends organized mission work in the ex- 
treme northeastern corner of the republic 
(1871), following closely upon the work of 
the Baptists (North) in the same frontiers. 
Then followed the Presbyterian Church 



The Pkotestant Movement 183 

(1872), the Congregational (1872), the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church (1873), the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, South (1873), the Presby- 
terian (South) (1874), the Associated Ee-' 
formed Presbyterian (1878), and the South- 
ern Baptist (1880). Two or three other de- 
nominations have since entered the field, and 
in 1897 an Independent Mexican Church was 
organized. It is principally congregational in 
its form of government. Recent statistics 
show a total of about thirty thousand com- 
municants in these several branches of Prot- 
estantism. 

The People Eeached. These members have 
been gathered largely from among the poor 
and uneducated classes. Mexico has always 
heretofore lacked a middle class. The oppor- 
tunities of the new industrial development 
and the influence of the schools — public 
schools and mission schools alike — have 
tended strongly in recent years to build up 
such a class, but it remains true even yet that 
the people of Mexico are divided into two 
groups only, the rich and the poor. Fortu- 
nately the poor are often quite as promising 
material for citizenship, whether in Church 
or state, as are the rich. The only thing 
they have lacked has been opportunity. In 
Mexico, however, the days of recent Protes- 



184 Mexico To-Day 

tant work have had the same mark of genu- 
ineness that was offered to strengthen the 
faith of John the Baptist in prison — '' The 
poor have the gospel preached unto them.'' 
And they have received it gladly, as they did 
in the days of Christ. Having nothing to lose 
they have been quick to see that there was 
much for them to gain. 

Bifficulties of Organization. But converts from 
among the poorer class of Mexico have been 
more easily obtained than organized. These 
are people who have never had part in inde- 
pendent, cooperative efforts. They are with- 
out experience in such things, and without 
financial resources as well. The crucial point 
of mission work in that country has thus 
proved to be, not the securing of adherents — 
that is comparatively easy — but the forming 
of a native, self-sustaining, and self -propagat- 
ing Church. The process goes on very slowly 
indeed. It seems that anything like perfec- 
tion in this direction must await either the 
conversion of a considerable number of well- 
to-do people or the gradual building up of a 
middle class. 

The Rich Hard to Eeach. Fortunately both of 
these are far from forlorn hopes. Persons 
having place among the comfortable element 
in society — the '^ accommodated," to use a 



The Protestant Movement 185 

Spanish phrase — have heretofore been hin- 
dered in many ways from becoming interested 
in the gospel. In the first place, social lines are 
very sharply drawn, and to expect such peo- 
ple to attend public worship in a cheap chapel 
or hired house, in company with a group of 
day laborers, would not be greatly different 
from asking men and women in good circum- 
stances in the South of our own country to 
worship regularly in the churches of their 
Negro servants. This social pressure has 
made itself felt not merely in reference to 
public worship, but by the insidious channels 
of family and other associations, since ardent 
Catholics have always managed to have it 
understood that interest in Protestantism was 
bad form. Heavy pressure of another sort 
also has regularly been exerted, namely, in 
business and financial matters. Men with 
property or in business have not been willing 
to risk the chances of boycott, a measure that 
has been unhesitatingly applied when neces- 
sary. The gradual introduction of a more 
liberal atmosphere is changing all this. 
Mexicans are traveling abroad; many for- 
eigners are living or traveling in Mexico. 
The feeling that to obtrude religious preju- 
dices into the social and business realm is 
out of harmony with the spirit of the times 



186 Mexico To-Day 

is becoming general, and so it is not at all 
uncommon now for persons whose place in 
the business and social world is secure to 
follow their spiritual promptings and become 
Protestants. The number of such persons 
is few as yet, but it is destined to increase, 
probably rapidly increase, in the not distant 
future. 

A Coining Middle Class. On the other hand, 
the building up of a middle class is already 
going on rapidly. Many wage earners are 
securing what is for them a competence and 
becoming economically independent. The 
federal government, the separate states — 
especially the more progressive and wealthy 
ones — and the Protestant missions have now 
for about forty years been diligently en- 
gaged in the development of popular educa- 
tion. The work has been far from ideal or 
satisfactory. There have been many hin- 
drances. But it has gone on, and the total 
outcome after more than a generation is most 
significant. The men and women educated 
out of the lowest class to a distinctly higher 
level have been in numbers comparatively 
few, but their influence is now quite out of 
proportion to their numbers. They are of a 
more vital and ambitious type than the con- 
temporary descendants of the privileged 



The Protestant Movement 187 

classes. They are therefore rapidly displac- 
ing them in the industrial, business, and po- 
litical affairs of the country. The revolu- 
tion of 1911 was officered almost exclusively 
by men of this type. The proportion of 
Protestants among its leaders was note- 
worthy. They were there, not because of be- 
ing Protestants, for it was in no sense a 
religious movement, but because of their fit- 
ness for the work in hand. That state of 
things has continued in the building up of a 
new army and the manning of civil govern- 
ment in the various states. The difficulties 
with which the Madero government had to 
contend were many, and not least among 
them was the prejudice of the displaced 
aristocracy against this invasion of the bour- 
geoisie. 

Modes of Work. Mission work in Mexico has 
been carried on principally along the two 
general lines of evangelization and education. 
At least three successful ventures in medical 
work have been made, that of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church in Guanajuato, that of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in Mon- 
terey, and that of the Baptists in Guadala- 
jara. The record made by these hospitals 
seems to indicate that such agencies might 
well have been employed even more exten- 



188 Mexico To-Day 

sively. Medical service for the villagers, 
especially in retired mountainous sections, is 
scant, often nil; some understanding of sim- 
ple remedies is therefore of great advantage 
to religions workers in such sections. 

Mission Scliools. Educational endeavor, in 
one form or another, has been common to all 
the evangelical missions. The women ^s 
boards and auxiliaries especially have con- 
cerned themselves with this line of worli, 
mostly for girls, and have had large and 
highly satisfactory results. The Mexicans 
distinctly prefer the boarding-school, often 
placing their daughters as boarders when 
living in the same city. Boarding-schools for 
girls have thus met with general favor in 
the cities of the republic. When judiciously 
managed they not seldom are practically self- 
sustaining, aside from the original outlay for 
a plant and the salary of one or two mission- 
aries. Public opinion is, however, highly sen- 
sitive and also suspicious, so that extreme 
care in management is essential to success. 
Coeducation, for example, is nowhere ap- 
proved, and the attempt to introduce it, even 
in the lower grades, has been detrimental 
to several otherwise successful institutions. 
The public schools rigidly separate boys and 
girls through all the grades. 




GRADUATING CLASS, NORMAL SCHOOL, SALTILLO 
SARAH L. KEEN COLLEGE FOR GIRLS, MEXICO CITY 



The Protestakt Movement 189 

Education of Teachers. The most effective 
outcome of the girls' schools has been in the 
development at several of these institutions 
of a teachers' normal course. These have 
proved uniformly successful ; the demand for 
their graduates, in public schools, private in- 
stitutions, and other mission schools being 
continuously greater than the supply. These 
admirable institutions have thus sent out 
into the influential position of teacher a large 
number of emancipated, yet modest and 
Christian young women. Their influence in 
the course of another generation is destined 
to be widespread. 

Reflex Influences. A by-product of the edu- 
cational work of the missions, especially that 
for girls, has been the stirring up to better 
standards of the Catholic schools. There 
were a good many of these, but their courses 
of study were unscientific and their interests 
chiefly other than scholastic. But in competi- 
tion with the effective and practical courses 
given in the Protestant schools, advantages 
for which students and their parents were 
willing to brave even religious prejudice, 
these older institutions had either to improve 
or lose all their patronage. In order to hold 
their own, therefore, they have taken to im- 
porting skilled teachers from the United 



190 Mexico To-Day 

States and elsewhere, and are offering many 
courses of study not before found in their 
curricula. Simultaneously, as has been 
noted, there was a general development of 
the public school system. And so great has 
been the demand for education that volun- 
tary private schools have been financially 
successful in many places. Those offering a 
commercial course have been especially popu- 
lar. 

The Boys E'eglected. In the education of boys 
and young men, however, the missions have 
done nothing like so well as with the girls' 
schools. The women's societies do little else 
than educational work, and hence success- 
fully concentrate on it. But the money of the 
general boards must go for a number of other 
enterprises, and so it is difficult for them to 
be sufficiently liberal with educational plants. 
In many of the missions, day-schools were an 
early, and always successful, branch of work. 
This work, however, by reason of the growing 
emphasis on evangelism, has largely been 
abandoned. The system of public schools, 
generally promulgated some twenty-five years 
ago, promised to be so complete that it was 
felt by many that the education of the nation 
was sufficiently provided for. Unfortunately 
it proved more complete on paper than in 



The Pkotestant Movement 191 

reality, and many missionary leaders are now 
regretting that the school work was not more 
persistently followed up by the Churches. 

Theological Training. Fractically all the 
chief missions have recognized the need of an 
institution for the training of their own 
church workers. Hence theological semina- 
ries, or more exactly, training schools for 
Christian workers, have been set up and 
maintained by the Presbyterians at Mexico 
City, by the Methodists at Puebla and San 
Luis Potosi, by the Congregationalists at 
Guadalajara, and by others. Had it been pos- 
sible to develop, along with these training- 
schools, first-class high schools for boys, that 
work would have been most fruitful. At 
Puebla the Methodist Episcopal mission has 
maintained such a school and it has been a 
most effective agency for good. But the class 
of boys available for students in these 
schools have been unable as a rule to pay 
tuition and board bills, in full, at least, so 
that failing an endowment, large annual 
grants have been required to keep up this 
kind of work. No school in Mexico has as yet 
been endowed otherwise than with a few spe- 
cial scholarships or similar aids. Had a 
great Protestant college been set down in that 
country twenty years ago, its position would 



192 Mexico To-Day 

by this time be as commanding as is that of 
Eobert College in the Balkans, or of some of 
the great missionary institutions in India and 
China. It is not even yet too late for the 
planting of snch a school, which ought, if 
founded, to be interdenominational, liberally 
equipped, and endowed. There are few open- 
ings in America more promising than this 
for the bestowment of a substantial sum of 
money by some philanthropist who seeks to 
serve his generation. It has proved quite 
out of the question for the mission boards to 
make even a beginning of such an institution. 
The native churches grow so slowly into a 
state of self-support and the evangelistic 
work is so urgent and so successful that up to 
the present these boards have had more de- 
mands on them in other lines than their in- 
come would permit them to meet. 

Evang'elistic Work. As has been intimated, 
the outstanding success of the evangelical 
missionary work in Mexico has been in the 
evangelistic department. The work of 
preaching has, it is true, been carried on 
under some rather severe handicaps. The 
Reform Laws forbid the holding of any re- 
ligious service in the open air. This has pre- 
vented all forms of street preaching, market- 
place services, camp-meetings, and the like, 




FACULTY AND STUDENTS, THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, COYOACAN 
FACULTY AND STUDENTS, QUERETARO INSTITUTE 



The Pkotestant Movement 193 

in a country peculiarly adapted by climate 
to work of this kind. The same laws, in 
return for this hindrance, rigorously guaran- 
tee protection for all congregations meeting 
in an orderly manner in private houses or in 
halls or churches. This protection has often 
had to be invoked as against local disturb- 
ances stirred up by a few fanatical opponents 
of anything new in the way of religious wor- 
ship. 

Difficulties. The scattered state of the peo- 
ple in rural districts and the lack of a 
genuinely rural element in the population, 
the necessity of holding meetings in mean 
and unattractive quarters in the cities, the 
difficulty of securing ministers intellectually 
and spiritually fitted for leadership, are other 
hindrances that have often proved grave. 
Nevertheless, throughout almost the entire 
period of work in Mexico, evangelistic en- 
deavor has continued fruitful. The secret is 
that the people have a real hunger for the 
gospel. Its doctrines of direct approach to 
God, of individual accountability, of conscious 
pardon, and of freedom in Christ Jesus have 
for them a most compelling appeal. 

Influence of Song. One element in Protestant 
worship that has proved a special attraction 
to the music-loving Mexicans has been the 



194 Mexico To-Day 

singing. The people can nearly all sing. 
They have an innate sense of harmony and 
rarely sing discordant notes, though in keep- 
ing time they often limp a bit. Much poetic 
skill has come to light among the converts 
there, in spite of their seeming illiteracy, 
showing itself especially in the composition 
and translation of hymns and songs to fit the 
stirring music of our Sunday-school and 
Church hymnals. These hymns have sung 
their way into the hearts of the people. They 
had had nothing of the sort before. The 
Catholic worship, aside from the chanting of 
a few litanies, has no popular singing. The 
songs of the people are few, many of them 
tainted by immoral suggestions and associa- 
tions. One interesting type of these is a 
group of wailing, minor chord, two part, love 
songs, a kind of inheritance, so it is said, from 
the Moors. These are spoken of usually as 
canciones rancheras — ranch songs — and have 
no serious claims on popular favor. The 
songs and hymns of Protestant worship are 
already widely known and are taking an im- 
portant place in the life of the people. 

The Bible Once More. Another element in the 
acceptability of evangelical teaching has been 
the stimulating effect of the Scriptures. Many 
instances are on record in Mexico of conver- 



The Peotestant Movement 195 

sions due wholly to the reading of Scripture, 
often of only a small portion of Scripture. 
There are two Catholic versions of the Bible 
in Spanish, but neither is to be had in a con- 
venient and cheap form. There has been a 
measure of confusion as to which is the best 
version for use among the evangelical 
churches. The edition most commonly circu- 
lated is known as the Valera Bible, from 
Cipriano de Valera, who made a recension 
of an older translation in the sixteenth cen- 
tury. It has been revised to a limited extent, 
and in recent years an entirely new transla- 
tion, made by Dr. H. B. Pratt, was brought 
out by the American Bible Society. There 
has been a considerable measure of opposi- 
tion to Bible distribution, stirred up invari- 
ably by the priests, who anathematize the 
^ ^ Protestant Bible ' ^ as a corrupt book. The 
convincing answer to this is to exhibit with 
it a Catholic version. A very slight inspec- 
tion will show that the two are in all essen- 
tials identical. The extent to which the great 
Bible Societies have laid, in Mexico as else- 
where, the foundation for all missionary 
work should be more generally recognized. 
For the separate missions to have provided 
each for itself the Scriptures needed even in 
its own work would have been enormously ex- 



196 Mexico To-Day 

pensive. Besides, the Bible Societies con- 
tinually act as pioneers, going into sections 
not yet occupied, sowing the seed, and pre- 
paring the ground for the organized work of 
some denomination to follow later. All alike 
are indebted to them and all alike should join 
heartily in their support. 

Ministerial Supply. Evangelistic preaching 
has been the chief reliance for securing con- 
verts to Christianity. The people are fond of 
oratory, and often exhibit surprising pro- 
ficiency in public speaking. Missionaries are 
usually able to master the Spanish language 
sufficiently to preach to good effect. Other 
things being equal, however, the exhorta- 
tions and teaching of a Mexican are more 
fruitful, by reason of those subtle thought 
processes peculiar to every people into which 
the foreigner rarely succeeds in entering, no 
matter how fluently he may speak the lan- 
guage. There has usually been no lack of 
volunteers for the ministry among the con- 
verts. But the number of young men who are 
sufficiently devoted to undergo an adequate 
course of training is small. The ranks are 
still further depleted when a few years of 
experience have shown how meager is, and 
for the present must remain, the stipend 
which they receive. The congregations can- 



The Protestaxt Movement 197 

not pay a great deal, though most of them 
could do better than they do, and the missions 
dare not pay a liberal salary for fear of open- 
ing a breach between workingmen and Church 
leaders, as well as putting a premium on ve- 
nality. Thus it comes about that many suc- 
cessful young ministers drift into secular pur- 
suits, often at the time when they could be 
most serviceable. Probably no other single 
problem besets the missionaries more per- 
sistently than this. There is a sense, to be 
sure, in which these young men are hardly to 
be blamed. They have usually married, and 
as their families begin to grow expensive and 
the problem of educating their children pre- 
sents itself, it is natural that they should 
think seriously and even conscientiously upon 
the question of whether they will remain in 
mission work or take up some other vocation 
at perhaps double the income. That a good 
many of them do violence to their consciences 
by leaving the ministry is indicated by the 
fact that after leaving it they do not hold to 
their Christian integrity. On the other hand, 
some are quite as loyal to Christ and as 
faithful in his service as laymen as they were 
as ministers. It is especially encouraging to 
observe how generally their children do well. 
Even when the father has been drawn back 



198 Mexico To-Day 

into the world, it is not uncommon for the 
sons to develop into faithful and valuable 
Christians. Already a second generation of 
Protestant Christians has had time to come 
to maturity in Mexico, and the churches are 
showing the effects of it. The ablest min- 
isters to-day, the most efficient lay church offi- 
cers, and many of the ablest and most pro- 
gressive citizens are men who '' from a child 
have known the Scriptures." 

Consolations of Religion. Something should 
be said also of the consolations which the gos- 
pel brings to the individual. The Mexican 
people as a people are profiting, as we have 
seen, by the introduction of a spiritual type 
of Christianity and its effects on public inter- 
ests. But in few countries are the joys of 
conscious communion with a saving Christ 
more profoundly helpful to sorrowing men 
and women than in Mexico. Life there for 
the people of the poorer classes, has long been 
a hard, narrow experience. Hopeless poverty 
has rested on them for so many generations 
that it is accepted with fatalistic resignation. 
Sickness has to be borne in the same way, for 
there is no medical treatment in reach of most 
of them. Their religion, real and present as 
it always is, for they are a devout people, 
has become a tawdry worship of wooden dolls 




TRINITY CHURCH, CHIHUAHUA 
McMURTRIE CHAPEL AND MANSE, COYOACAN 



The Protestant Movemeistt 199 

and cheap cliromos. Of civic consciousness 
and the sense of freedom they have prac- 
tically nothing, for ignorance and helpless- 
ness have been their portion so long that they 
know not how to bring themselves to hope for 
anything better. 

The Gospel in Its Element. It is in such an 
atmosphere as this that the gospel is most 
at home. To bless and change such condi- 
tion it was ''made and provided. '' It was 
the common people who heard Jesus gladly. 
Publicans and harlots flocked into the King- 
dom, even when the doctors of the law held 
aloof. The gospel gives most to those who 
need most. The Mexicans rejoice over it as 
over a pearl of great price. They are some- 
times slow to accept its moral demands. 
They do not know how to organize and con- 
duct a church or even a Sunday-school. They 
emerge from their poverty and ignorance 
with painful slowness, often not at all. But 
in the consolations of the gospel, the joy of 
sins forgiven, the consciousness of salvation 
in Christ Jesus, they absolutely revel. It 
brightens their faces, sets them to singing, 
lights up their poor homes, and makes more 
tolerable their poverty and disease. They 
become heroes and martyrs. More than sixty 
have laid down their lives for Christ's sake 



200 Mexico To-Day 

during these last four decades. It ^makes 
them apostles to their kinsmen and neighbors. 
The churches in Mexico are witnessing 
churches. By many a lowly bedside our peo- 
ple there bear testimony with their last 
breath that Jesus Christ is to them wisdom 
and sanctification and redemption. Mission- 
aries are as careful as possible to avoid mak- 
ing the impression that what they are seek- 
ing is converts from Catholicism to Prot- 
estantism, and not rather the redemption of 
men and women from sin. But it is true that 
exceedingly few who have tasted of the good 
word of God and the power of the life to come 
care to go back to the ^' elements " of their 
earlier faith. Stories of death-bed repent- 
ance for ^^ heresy ^' may usually be dis- 
counted. 

A Reformed Romanism. The truth is that the 
^^ Church of their fathers '' must reestablish 
its hold upon the Mexicans by other methods 
than those through which for several cen- 
turies it has held undisputed sway. Appeal 
must now be made to the judgment and moral 
sense of the people. Mere authority will no 
longer suffice. The appeal of tawdry trap- 
pings and of gorgeous ritual does not win the 
thoughtful, and the Mexicans are becoming 
thoughtful. Whatever strength the Eoman 




A CHRISTIAN FAMILY 
TYPICAL RURAL HOME OF A CHRISTIAN FAMILY 



The Protestant Movement 201 

Catholic Church shall exhibit in the future — 
and doubtless it will remain a potent factor in 
the life of the Mexican people — must be at- 
tained largely as Protestantism is seeking to 
establish its hold, '^ by pureness, by Imowl- 
edge, by long-suifering, by kindness, by the 
Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word 
of truth, by the power of God.^^ To bring 
back thus into the realm of spiritual vitality 
the mighty enginery of that efficient and ven- 
erable organization is destined to be one of 
the praiseworthy achievements of Protestant 
work in Catholic countries. 

Influence of Politics. The prevailing political 
unrest, in spite of its disastrous effects on the 
economic condition of Mexico, is destined to 
fall out to the furtherance of the gospel. The 
struggle is but a continuance of Mexico's 
long-drawn-out effort to shake herself free 
of tyrannies, political, industrial, religious. 
It is profoundly stirring the intellectual life 
of the people. They are taking lessons as 
never before in the art of thinking for them- 
selves. They are bound to see that the real 
cause of this prolonging of their struggle for 
freedom is in their own ignorance and moral 
inefficiency. They need education and they 
need moral stiffening. These are precisely 
the things for which Protestantism stands. 



202 Mexico To-Day 

The boys and girls who have been trained in 
the evangelical churches and schools are to- 
day making proof of their training. They are 
now men and women and they are in the eye 
of the people. When a really popular gov- 
ernment gets on its feet in Mexico, it will be 
found that the young people trained by the 
missionaries will be as prominent in it as 
they are in China under the new order of 
things. That will mean a new day for evan- 
gelical work in Mexico. Conditions to-day, 
disturbed as they are at the moment of this 
writing, are no occasion for the withdrawing 
of our hand. On the contrary, they call loudly 
for the strengthening of every agency. 

Future Possibilities. Schools, churches, hos- 
pitals, dispensaries, and other agencies will 
presently be popular as never before. In- 
deed, during the worst months of the revolu- 
tion, mission schools have remained crowded 
to their capacity. The temporary disabling 
of much of the public school system makes at 
once a demand and an opportunity for mis- 
sionary institutions. That great Eepublic, 
destined by its very location and resources 
to set the type and hold the leadership of all 
Latin America, is sure to be a field worthy 
the life devotion of our best and brightest 
young people. 



The Protestant Movement 203 

Some Readjustments Keeded. It seems prob- 
able tliat in its details the missionary work 
in Mexico may have to go through a process 
of readjustment. Present conditions make 
the time for that propitious. The problem in 
brief is to shift the Church organizations 
from their present basis of dependence on the 
mission boards of the United States to one 
of independence and self-support. The 
period of tutelage has been too long already. 
No satisfactory progress in the direction of 
great national Churches can be made by so- 
cieties which draw their sustenance from im- 
ported funds. At all costs the transition 
must be made. Doubtless it will be costly. 
It may seem to result in a period of non- 
progress or even of retrogression. But such 
a period will be only temporary. The evan- 
gelical churches of Mexico have in them too 
much of vitality to perish thus. Fortunately 
the missions of related denominations show 
a ready mind for getting together. One 
Presbyterian Church and one Methodist 
Church for the whole nation will be easy of 
achievement. The churches of congrega- 
tional government will also doubtless work 
out their problems harmoniously and with 
the nation as a unit. 



204 -Mexico To-Day 

Denominational Cooperation. It would seem 
that certain forms of denominational coop- 
eration might well be inaugurated. The 
several churches are even now working to- 
gether in preparing Spanish editions of the 
Graded Lessons for Sunday-schools. A 
number of them might combine to advantage 
in issuing a religious periodical. There is 
general discussion also of cooperation in 
theological education. A seminary repre- 
senting three or four of the strongest mis- 
sions working together might have an equip- 
ment and a faculty that would at once reduce 
the expense of this necessary work and do 
the work more satisfactorily. Such an in- 
stitution would command public respect in a 
way not possible to the separate small and 
poorly equipped training-schools as now 
maintained. It might even become the nu- 
cleus of a great college or university under 
Christian auspices. Nothing could do more 
for Mexico than such an institution as that. 

Self-support. Meantime the Mexican congre- 
gations should be encouraged to undertake 
as rapidly as possible their own support. 
With a view to this, a very large measure of 
autonomy should be allowed them. Church 
life in every land is bound to work out 
indigenous forms of organization. The 



The Protestant Movement 205 

Churches which send missionaries to Mexico 
should be more concerned for the Christian- 
izing of the people than for the importation 
into that country of any special types of 
church organization and government. 

Invitation to the Missionary. Despite the 
gloomy clouds now overshadowing sunny 
Mexico, I am sure that it is bound yet to 
be, as it has been, a most inviting field for the 
missionary. It is near at hand and easy of 
access. The climate is healthful. The peo- 
ple are groping for a friendly hand. They 
need help. To minister to rich and poor 
alike, to aid in dissipating the thick cloud of 
ignorance, to bring home the consolations 
of a living faith to those whose earthly lot, 
like that of their fathers before them, is hard 
and comfortless, to help the leaders of the 
people in developing the intelligence and mo- 
rality needed for placing on a firm footing 
government of the people by the people, to 
take part, in brief, in the making of a great 
and free and prosperous nation — such is the 
joyous prospect open to the missionary to 
Mexico. And while engaged in this enticing 
task he will live in a land of romance and of 
entrancing beauty. Fair skies will shine upon 
him and soft winds will fan his cheek. Wide 
plains and rugged mountains will stretch 



206 Mexico To-Day 

their panorama of gold and purple beauty 
before his eyes, under a light so silvery and 
dazzling that to those who have not seen it 
it cannot be described. A gentle and grate- 
ful and affectionate people will surround 
him, full of spiritual longings and eager for 
the gospel. Their soft and liquid speech 
will become to him as his own mother tongue. 
He will see many sons and daughters born 
into the kingdom of his Lord, and will hold 
sweet fellowship with brothers and sisters 
of his own Father's family. He will minis- 
ter at the bedside of dying saints as patri- 
archal and as devout as Abraham and Isaac 
or as Simeon or Anna or Dorcas. He will 
train as his own sons the young men who in 
a coming generation will preach the gospel 
to their people or take up the burden of 
teaching its youth or administering its busi- 
ness. He will thus help to lay the founda- 
tion of a great nation, rich and strong 
and proud, a predestined leader in the sis- 
terhood of Spanish American republics. 
Before another century missionaries will be 
going out from there to carry the good news 
in their own beautiful language to other less 
favored regions where that tongue is spoken, 
perhaps, even, to the mother country of it 
beyond the sea. 



APPENDIXES 



APPENDIXES 

APPENDIX A^ 
Constitution and Government 

Mexico was annexed to the Spanish crown by conquest 
in 1521, and for three centuries continued to be governed 
by Spain. In 1810 the rule of the Spanish viceroys had 
become so tyrannical that it caused an outbreak headed by 
the patriot priest Hidalgo^, who on September 15, 1810, 
declared the independence of Mexico. In 1821 General 
Augustin Iturbide declared himself Emperor of Mexico, 
but in 1824 he had to flee^ and the Republic was established. 
Several Presidents ruled the destinies of this country with 
more or less severity until 1864, when the throne of Mexico 
was offered to Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian of Austria. 
He was executed in 1867, and Juarez, who had been Presi- 
dent in the northern part of the country, took the reins of 
government. He was followed by Lerdo de Tigada, who in 
1876 fled, and General Porfirio Diaz made his entry into 
Mexico City. He ruled the country with the exception of 
1880-4 (General Manuel Gonzalez) until May, 1911, when he 
presented his resignation to Congress. Senor F. de la 
Barra acted as President ad interim until the elections had 
taken place. 

The present Constitution of Mexico bears date of Feb- 
ruary 5, 1857, with subsequent modifications down to May, 
1908. By its terms Mexico is declared a federative republic, 
divided into states — 19 at the outset, but at present 27 
in number, with three territories and the Federal District 
— each of which has a right to manage its ovti local affairs, 
while the whole are bound together in one body politic by 
fundamental and constitutional laws. The powers of the 
supreme government are divided into three branches, the 
legislative, executive, and judicial. The legislative power 
is vested in a Congress consisting of a House of Repre- 
sentatives (233 members) and a Senate, and the Executive 
in a President. Representatives are elected for two years 
by the suffrage of all respectable male adults, at the rate 
of one member for 40,000 inhabitants. The qualifications 

1 Appendixes A to D are taken from Statesman's Year-Book, 1912. 

209 



210 Appendix A 

requisite are, to be twenty-five years of age, and a resident 
in the state. The Senate consists of fifty-six members, two 
for each state, of at least thirty years of age, who are 
returned in the same manner as the deputies. The members 
of both Houses receive salaries of $3,000 a year. The Pres- 
ident is elected by electors popularly chosen in a general 
election, holds office for six years, and, according to an 
amendment of the Constitution in 1887, may be elected for 
consecutive terms. The election of the Vice-President takes 
place in the same manner and at the same date as that of 
the President. The Vice-President is ex officio President 
of the Senate, with a voice in the discussions but without 
vote. Failing the President through absence or otherwise, 
the Vice-President discharges the functions of the President. 
Failing both, Congress shall call for new elections to be 
held at once. Congress has to meet annually from April 
1 to May 31, and from September 16 to December 15, and 
a permanent committee of both Houses sits during the 
recesses. 

President of the Republic. — Sefior Don Francisco I. Ma- 
dero; elected October 14, 1911; inaugurated November 6, 
1911; killed February 23, 1913. 

General Huerta assumed power, February, 1913. 

The administration is carried on, under the direction 
of the President and a Council, by eight Secretaries of 
State, heads of the Departments of: 1. Foreign Affairs; 
2. Interior ; 3. Justice ; 4. Public Instruction and Fine Arts ; 
5. Fomento, Colonization, and Industry; 6. Communications 
and Public Works; 7. Finances and Public Credit; 8. War 
and Marine. 

Local Government 

Each separate state has its own internal constitution, 
government, and laws; but interstate customs duties are 
not permitted, though state taxes are levied. Each state 
has its governor, legislature, and judicial officers popularly 
elected under rules similar to those of the Federation; and 
the civil and criminal code in force in the Federal District 
prevails only in the Federal District and territories (Tepic, 
Lower California, and Quintana Roo). All the other states 
of the Mexican Union have their own special codes based, 
more or less, on those of the Federal District; but at the 
same time they must publish and enforce laws issued by 
the federal government. 



Appendix B 



211 



APPENDIX B 
Abea and Population 



States and Territories 



Atlantic States 
Tamaulipas . . . 

Vera Cruz . 

Tabasco .... 

Campeche . . 

Yucatan . . . 



Total . . . 
Inland States 

Chihuahua 

Coahuila 

Nuevo Leon . . . . 

Durango 

Zacatecas 

San Luis Potosi 
Aguascalientes . 
Guanajuato . . . , 

Quer6taro 

Hidalgo 

Mexico 

Federal District 

Morelos 

Tlaxcala 

Puebla 






32,128 
29,201 
10,072 
18,087 
35,203 



124,692 

87,802 

63,569 

23,592 

38,009 

24,757 

25,316 

2,950 

11,370 

3,556 

8,917 

9,247 

463 

2,773 

1,595 

12.204 



Total 

Pacific States 
Lower California (Ter. ) 

Sonora 

Sinaloa 

Tepic (Ter.) 

Jalisco 

Colima 

Michoacan 

Guerrero 

Oaxaca 

Chiapas 



Islands 



Grand Total 



316,125 

58,328 
76,900 
33,671 
11,275 
31,846 
2,272 
22,874 
24,996 
35,382 
27,222 



324,768 
1,420 



a 
-.2 

SS2 



249,253 

1,124,368 

183,708 

85,795 

337,020 



1,980,144 

405,265 
367,652 
368,929 
436,147 
475,863 
624,748 
118,978 

1,075,270 
243,515 
641,895 
975,019 
719,052 
179,814 
183,805 

1,092,456 



7,868,411 

52,244 
262,545 
323,499 
171,337 

1,202,802 

77,704 

991,649 

605,437 

1,041,035 
436,817 



5,165,070 



767,005 15,063,207 13,605,919 






218,948 
981,030 
159,834 
86,542 
314.087 



1,760,441 

327,784 
296,938 
327,937 
370,294 
462,190 
575,432 
102,416 

1,061,724 
232,389 
605,051 
934,463 
541,516 
160,115 
172,315 

1,021,133 



7,191,697 

47,624 
221,682 
296,701 
150,098 
1,153,891 
65,115 
930,033 
479,205 
948,633 
360,799 



4,653,781 



.— ~ OS 



S^iJ 



cCfl,' 



6.8 
33.9 
15.8 

4.7 
8.9 



14.1 

3.7 

4.6 

13.9 

9.8 

18.7 

22.7 

34.7 

93.4 

65.3 

67.8 

101.1 

1169.5 

58.3 

108.0 

83.7 



22.7 

0.8 
2.8 
8.8 
13.2 
36.2 
28.6 
40.6 
19.2 
26.8 
13.3 



14.3 



17.7 



212 Appendix B 

Chief Census Features 

Since 1900 the territory of Quintana Roo has been formed 
on the southeast coast of Yucatan. 

In 1900 there were 6,716,007 males and 6,829,455 females. 
19 per cent, are of pure, or nearly pure, white race, 43 per 
cent, of mixed race, and 38 per cent, of Indian race. Dis- 
tinctions of race are abolished by the Constitution of 1824. 
The foreign population in 1900 numbered 57,507 : — Spanish, 
16,258; United States, 15,265; Guatemalan, 5,804; French, 
3,976; British, 2,845 ; Cuban, 2,721; German, 2,565; Italian, 
2,564; Chinese, 2,834. 

The chief cities, 1910, are: — ^Mexico (capital), 470,659; 
Puebla, 101,214; Guadalajara, 118,799; San Luis Potosi, 
82,946; Leon, 63,263; Monterey, 81,006; Pachuca, 38,620; 
Zacatecas, 25,905; Guanajuato, 35,147; Merida, 61,999; 
Queretaro, 35,011; Morelia, 39,116; Oaxaca, 37,469; Ori- 
zaba, 32,894; Aguascalientes, 44,800; Saltillo, 35,063; Du- 
rango, 34,085; Chihuahua, 39,061; Vera Cruz, 29,164 j 
Toluca 31,247; Celaya, 25,565. 



APPENDIX C 

Religion, Instruction, and Justice 

The prevailing religion is the Roman Catholic, but the 
Church is independent of the state, and there is toleration 
of all other religions. No ecclesiastical body can acquire 
landed property. There are 7 archbishops and 23 suffragan 
bishops. In 1900, 13,533,013 Roman Catholics; 51,795 
Protestants; 3,811 of other faiths; 18,640 of no professed 
faith. 

Education is free and compulsory. In 1895, 10,345,899 
could neither read nor write; 1,782,822 could read and 
write; 323,336 could only read; 39,516 unknown. In 1905 
elementary schools supported by the Federation and states 
(exclusive of infant schools), 6,098, by municipalities^ 
2,985; total, 9,083 schools, of which 4,876 were for boys, 
2,458 for girls, and 1,749 mixed; 575,972 enrolled pupils 
(352,333 boys and 223,639 girls). For secondary instruc- 
tion the federal and state governments had 34 schools 
(27 for boys, 3 for girls, and 4 mixed) with 4,231 pupils 
(3,793 boys and 438 girls). For professional instruction 
there were 68 institutions and colleges (34 for men, 17 for 
women, and 17 mixed); they had (1905) 9,327 enrolled 
students (5,258 men and 4,069 women). Expenditure on 



Appendix C 213 

schools $9,836,923.1 The private, clerical, and associa- 
tion schools numbered 2,499 with 152,917 pupils (81,947 
boys and 70,970 girls). In 1912 the system of primary 
education was more fully extended so as to reach the native 
population. 

In 1904 there were the National Library, with 180,000 
volumes, and 138 other public libraries. There were in 
that year 34 museums for scientific and educational pur- 
poses, and 11 meteorological observatories. The number of 
periodicals published was 459, of which 439 were in Spanish, 
12 in English, 5 in Spanish and English, 2 in Italian, 
1 in French. 

The judicial power, which is entirely distinct from and 
independent of the executive, consists of the Supreme Court, 
with 15 judges chosen for a period of six years, three 
Circuit Courts, with 3 judges, and District Courts, with 
32 judges. 

The Ordinary, Civil, Criminal, and Correctional Courts 
are controlled by the Department of Justice and Public 
Instruction. 

APPENDIX D 
Production and Industry 

Cultivated lands, 30,027,500 acres; pastoral lands, 120,- 
444,200 acres; forest lands, 43,933,200 acres. Agriculture 
is in a very primitive condition. Agricultural products 
are maize, cotton, henequen, wheat, coffee, beans; cotton 
is grown in the Laguna district on the Nazas River, and 
is dependent on irrigation which is being extended. There 
is a large output of sugar and molasses, valued at about 
$12,610,000 annually (crop for 1911-12 estimated at 160,- 
000 tons), and the production of spirits in 1910 was 
9,838,000 gallons. There are 1,674 alcohol distilleries. 
There are many colonies, or agricultural settlements, es- 
tablished either by the government or by companies or 
persons authorized by the government. 

On June 30, 1902, there were in Mexico 5,142,457 head 
of cattle, 859,217 horses, 334,435 mules, 287,991 asses, 
3,424,430 sheep, 4.206,011 goats, and 616,139 pigs, the whole 
being valued at about $117,000,000. 

Mining is carried on in 24 of the 31 States and Terri- 
tories, nearly all the mines yielding silver either alone 
or in combination with other ores. 

» Dollars throughout are Mexican, two of which equal one dollar of the 
United States. 



214 Appendix D 

Mineral products exported in 1908, 1909, and 1910: — 



Gold, kilogrammes 

Silver, kilogrammes 

Copper and ore, metric tons 

Lead and ore 

Iron and ore 

Antimony 

Zinc ore 

Graphite 

Marble 

Salt 

Asphalt 

Sulphur 



1908 


1909 


20,156 


29,383 


2,325,907 


2,191,249 


118,568 


117,484 


104,057 


122,907 


54 
4,406 




4,095 


43,339 


41,267 


1,827 


1,690 


1,340 


992 


3,778 


5,365 


3,835 


5,692 


884 


3,352 



1910 



31,970 

2,254,103 

203,465 

125,396 

2 

4,375 

54,136 

2,722 

1,166 

4,429 

3,691 

3,221 



Value of mineral output for 1909-10: Gold, $42,636,402; 
silver, $76,349,122; others, $37,534,551; total, $156,520,075. 

The output of coal is estimated at 700,000 tons annually. 
Opals are mined in Quer6taro ; output not stated. 

There is a Mint at the Capital, and 13 Assay oflBces 
( Federal ) . 

Important metallurgical works are carried on at San 
Luis Potosi, Monterej'^, Durango, and Aguascalientes. 

On June 30, 1910, there were 142 (19 not working) cotton 
factories, employing 31,963 workmen; spindles 702,874; 
looms, 25,017; stamping machines, 41. The consumption 
of cotton in 1909-10 was 34,736,154 kilos; the output of 
yarn, 2,768,314 kilos, and of cotton piece goods and prints, 
13,936,269 pieces. There were 451 tobacco factories, the 
annual output of which was: 511,573,779 packets of ciga- 
rettes, 41,839,416 cheroots, 39,676,294 cigars, 193 packets 
of snuff, and 75,770 kilos of tobacco. There were 1,674 
distilleries giving an output of 39,352,205 litres of spirits of 
various sorts. 



Appendix E 215 

APPENDIX E 
Bibliography 

Books 

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G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. (Out of print.) 

Ballou, M. M. Aztec Land. 1895. Houghton, Mifflin & 
/ Co., Boston. $1.50. 

i^ Barton, Mary. Impressions of Mexico with Brush and 
Pen. 1911. The Macmillan Company, New York. $3.00. 

Blake, M. E., and Sullivan, M. F. Mexico — Picturesque, 
Political, Progressive. Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, Boston. 
$1.25. 

Brown, Hubert W. Latin America. 1901. Fleming H. 
Revell Co., New York. $1.20, net. 

Butler, J. W. Mexico Coming Into Light. 1907. Metho- 
dist Book Concern, New York. 35 cents. 

Butler, J. W. Sketches of Mexico. 1894. Methodist Book 
Concern, New York. $1.00. 

Butler, C. William Butler, the Founder of Two Missions 
of the Methodist Church. 1902. Methodist Book Con- 
cern, New York. $1.00. 

Butler, W. Mexico in Transition. 1892. Western Metho- 
dist Book Concern, Cincinnati. $2.00. 
I Calderon de La Barca, Madame. Life in Mexico During a 
'^ Residence of Two Years in that Country. 1910. Amer- 
ican News Co., New York. $2.25. 

Carson, W. E. Mexico the Wonderland of the South. 
1909. The Macmillan Company, New York. $2.25. 

Clark, F. E. and H. A. The Gospel in Latin Lands. 1909. 
The Macmillan Company, New York. 50 cents. 

Coe, F. E. Our American Neighbors. 1910. Silver, Bur- 
dett & Co., New York. 60 cents. 

Convention Between the United States and Mexico, 1908. 
United States Department, Superintendent of Documents, 
Washington. 5 cents. 

Creelman, James. Diaz, Master of Mexico. 1911. D. 
Appleton & Co., New York. $2.00. 

Douglass, J. The United States and Mexico. 1910. Amer- 
ican Association for International Conciliation, New 
York. Gratis. 

Duggan, J. P. A Mexican Ranch. 1907. American Bap- 
tist Publication Society, Philadelphia. 50 cents. 

Enock, C. R. Mexico : Its Ancient and Modern Civilization. 
1909. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. $3.00. 



216 Appendix E 

Edwards, W. S. On the Mexican Highlands. 1910. West- 
ern Methodist Book Concern, Cincinnati. $1.50. 

Gillpatrick, Owen W. The Man Who Likes Mexico. 1911. 
Century Company, New York. $2.00. 

Goodrich, James K. Coming Mexico. 1913. A. C. Mc- 
Clurg & Co., Chicago. $1.50. 

Graham, A. A. Mexico, with Comparisons and Conclu- 
sions. 1907. Crane & Co., Topeka, Kansas. $1,00. 

Hale, Susan. Mexico. (Story of Nations Series) 1893. 
G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. $1.50. 

Hale, Susan. Mercedes, a Story of Mexico. 1895. Baptist 
Book Concern, Louisville, Ky. $1.25. 

Janvier, Thomas A. Legends of the City of Mexico. 1911. 
Harper & Bros., New York. $1.30. 

Kirkham, Stanton D. Mexican Travels. 1909. G. P. Put- 
nam's Sons, New York. $1.75. 

Lumholtz, C. Unknown Mexico. 2 vols. 1902. Charles 
Scribner's Sons, New York. $12.00. 

Lummis, C. F. The Awakening of a Nation. 1898. Harper 
& Bros., New York. $2.50. 

Martin, P. F. Mexico of the Twentieth Century. 2 vols. 
1907. Dodd, Mead & Co., New York. $8.50. 

Mexico: A General Sketch. 1911. Pan American Union, 
Washington. $1.00. 

Mitchel, B. Cortes, Montezuma, and Mexico. A. Flanagan 
Co., Chicago. 35 cents. 

Moses, J. T. To-day in the Land of To-morrow: A Study 
in the Development of Mexico. 1907. Christian Woman's 
Board of Missions, Indianapolis. 50 cents. 

Municipal Organization in Latin America. 1909. Pan 
American Union, Washington. 

Noll, A. H. From Empire to Republic. 1903. A. C. 
McClurg & Co., Chicago. $1.40. 

Noll, A. H. Short History of Mexico. 1903. A. C. McClurg 
& Co., Chicago. 75 cents. 

Noll, A. H., and McMahon, A. P. Life and Times of 
Miguel Hidalgo. 1910. A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago. 
$1.00. 

Ober, F. A. History of Mexico. Saalfield Publishing Co., 
New York. $1.00. 

Prescott, W. H. History of the Conquest of Mexico. 1909. 
(Everyman's Library) E. P. Button, New York. 2 vols., 
35 cents, each. 

Rankin, Melinda. Twenty Years Among the Mexicans. 
1881. (Out of print.) Central Book Concern, Cincin- 
nati. 

Reville, A. Native Religions of Mexico and Peru. 1884. 
Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. $1.50. 



Appendix E 217 

Komero, M. Geographical and Statistical Notes on Mexico. 

1898. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. $2.00. 
Romero, M. Mexico and the United States. 1898. G. P. 

Putnam's Sons, New York. $4.50. 
Smith, F. Hopkinson. A White Umbrella in Mexico. 1892. 

Houghton, Mifflin & Co., New York. $1.50. 
Starr, Frederick. In Indian Mexico. 1908. Forbes & 

Co., Chicago. $5.00. 
Turner, J. K. Barbarous Mexico. 1911. Charles H. 

Kerr & Co., Chicago. $1.50. 
Tweedie, E. B. Porfirio Diaz, Seven Times President of 

Mexico. 1906. John Lane Company, New York. $5.00. 
Wallace, D. Beyond the Mexican Sierras. 1910. A. C. 

McClurg & Co., Chicago. $2.00. 
Wells, D. D. Study of Mexico. 1887. D. Appleton & Co., 

New York. $1.00. Out of print. 
Winter, N. O. Mexico and Her People of To-day. 1907. 

L. C. Page & Co., Boston. $3.00. 
Winton, G. B. A New Era in Old Mexico. 1905. Metho- 
dist Publishing House, Nashville. $1.00. 
Wright, M. Picturesque Mexico. 1897. George Barrie & 

Sons, Philadelphia. $10.00. 

Magazine Articles 

The list below contains most of the important articles 
that have appeared in American magazines in the English 
language. 

1910 

" Tramway and Power System in Mexico City, and the 
Federal District." C. E. Ferguson. Overland, July, 1910. 

'^American Invasion of Mexico." Harper's Weekly, Decem- 
ber 18, 1909. 

"Awakening of a Nation." P. M. Beringer. Overland, 
July, 1910. 

"Barbarous Mexico." American Magazine, December, 1910. 

" Barbarous Mexico : The Rubber Slavery of the Mexican 
Tropics." H. Whitaker. American Magazine, February, 
1910. 

" Barbarous Mexico : Observations of Two Englishmen upon 
Slavery in Yucatan." American Magazine, April, 1910. 

" Betrayal of a Nation." E. A. Powell. American Maga- 
zine, October, 1910. 

"A Century of Mexican Independence." Outlook, Septem- 
ber 24, 1910. 



218 Appendix E 

" In the Lime Light in Mexico." Overland, July, 1910. 

"Maligners of Mexico." A. H. Lewis. Cosmopolitan, 
March, 1910. 

" Marvelous Mexico and the Muck Raker." P. N. Beringer. 
Overland, May, 1910. 

" Mexicans and Americans." Outlook, November 26, 1910. 

" Mexico of To-day." J. B. Frisbie. Catholic World, April, 
1910. 

" Mexico To-day and To-morrow." O. Stevens. Cosmopoli- 
tan, April, 1910. 

"Rebellious Mexico." Outlook, December 3, 1910. 

" Security of Investments in Mexico." T. K. Long. World 
To-day, June, 1910. 

" Three Months in Peonage." American Magazine, March, 
1910. 

" True Conditions Existing in Mexico." C. Cebrian. Over- 
land, September, 1910. 

" Contest for the Laws of Reform in Mexico." J. W. Foster. 
American Historical Review, April, 1910. 

" Mexico the Progressive." 0. Stevens. Cosmopolitan, 
March, 1910. 

" Making a Fresh Start." P. N. Beringer. Overland, July, 
1910. 

" Mexico — ^A Nation with a Unique Problem." C. T. Crowell. 
November 24, 1910. 

" Personal Recollections." Porfirio Diaz. Cosmopolitan, 
July, September, November, 1910. 

" Porfirio Diaz — Soldier and Statesman." P. F. Martin. 
Living Age, January 1, 1910. 

*' Biggest Factor in Developing Mexico's Industrial Possi- 
bilities." C. E. Ferguson. Overland, August, 1910, 

" Growth of Business in Mexico." Overland, July, 1910. 

" Industrial Mexico." O.Stevens. Cosmopolitan, May, 1910. 

" Bull-fighting in Mexico." Mrs. F. A. Hodgson. Canadian 
Magazine, March, 1910. 

"Mexico City's New Waterworks System." R. H. Murray. 
Scientific American, September 24, 1910. 

" Organization of the Police Department in the Federal 
District." Overland, July, 1910. 

1911 

" Protestant Christianity in Mexico." J. W. Butler. Mis- 
sionary Review of the World, May, 1911. 

"Religious Influence in Mexico." N. O. Winter. Mis- 
sionary Review of the World, March, 1911. 

" American Interest in Mexico." World's Work, February, 
191L 



Appendix E 219 

" Cost of Public Lands in Mexico." Bulletin of Pan Ameri- 
can Union, January, 1911. 

" Independence Bell of Mexico." Scientific American Sup- 
plement, February 4, 1911. 

" The Mexican Republic and Its Future." Chautauqua, 
August, 1911. 

" Mexico After Diaz." S. Bonsai. North American Maga- 
zine, September, 1911. 

"Mexico in 1910." Maps illustrating. Bulletin of the 
Pan American Union, July, 1911. 

"Mexico's Future." C. T. Crowell. Independent, July 20, 
1911. 

" Our Neighbor, Mexico." J. Birlsinbine. National Geo- 
graphic Magazine, May, 1911. 

" Rebellion in Mexico Grown General." Current Literature, 
March, 1911. 

"Reform in Mexico." Independent, April 20, 1911. 

"United States and Mexico: Statistics." W. B. Bailey. 
Independent, May 18, 1911. 

" In Darkest Mexico." H. E. Smith. Overland, August, 
1911. 

"Mexican Transportation Scenes." W. W. Bradley. Na- 
tional Geographic Magazine, December, 1910. 

"Notes on Southern Mexico." G. N. Collins and C. B. 
Doyle. Map illustrating. National Geographic Magazine, 
March, 1911. 

" Our Government's Mexican Policy." Independent, June 15, 
1911. 

" Grievances of the Mexican Insurrectos." Independent, 
April 27, 1911. 

"Mexico and Its Maker." World's Work, June, 1911. 

"Mystery of Mexico." W. B. Northrop. Hampton-Colum- 
bian Magazine, June, 1911. 

" Underlying Causes of Mexican Insurrection." J. Creel- ' 
man. North American Magazine, April, 1911. 

"The Book that Threw Mexico into Revolution." World 
To-day, June, 1911. 

" Meaning of the Revolution." F. Palmer. Collier's, May 
27 1911. 

" Mexico and the United States." Outlook, March 25, 1911. 

" The United States and Mexico and the Monroe Doctrine." 
Outlook, March 25, 1911. 

" Agricultural Possibilities in Tropical Mexico." P. Olsson- 
Scffer. National Geographic Magazine, December, 1910. 

"Hooked: Men Who Do the Hard Work in Mexico." A. 
Ruhl. Outlook, August 26, 1911. 

" Remarkable American Forest Railway Industrial Road in 



220 Appendix E 

Michoaean." A. Reiehe. Scientific American Supplement, 
January 28, 1911. 
" Christian Opportunities in Mexico." L. E. Troyer. Mis- 
sionary Review of the World, March, 1911. 

1912 

"Situation in Mexico, 1912." J, A. Avirette. Collier's, 

January 27, 1912. 
".Commerce of Mexico for 1911." Bulletin of Pan American 

Union, July, 1912. 
"Winter Festivals of Mexico: A Christmas that Combines 

Aztec and Christian Legends." W. Weber. Craftsman, 

December, 1912. 
" Report of the Committee on the Mexico Centennial." 

H. H. Cummings. National Education Association, 1911. 
" Avowal of Mexican Hostility." Literary Digest, September 

28, 1912. 
"Mexico and the United States." Outlook, March 23, 1912. 
"Warning Mexico." Literary Digest, April 27, 1912. 
"Warning to Mexico." Outlook, April 27, 1912. 
" Situation in Mexico." D. Butterfield. North American, 

November, 1912. 
" Bandit-governed Mexico." R. Barry. Map illustrating. 

World To-day, January, 1912. 
" Civil War in Mexico." Current Literature, October, 1912. 
"The Issue in Mexico." Outlook, May 4, 1912. 
"Mexican Revolution." Review of Reviews, July, 1912. 
" Mexican Revolution : Its Causes and Consequences." L. S. 

Rowe. Political Science Magazine, June, 1912. 
"New Government Needed." E. T. Simondetti. World 

To-day, January, 1912. 
" Our Duty in Mexican Disorder." Literary Digest, Septem- 
ber 21, 1912. 
" Mining in Mexico." T. L. Carter. Map illustrating. 

Engineering Magazine, March, 1912. 
" Waking up a Nation with Water." E. A. Powell. Tech- 
nical World Magazine, November, 1912. 
" Disruption of Mexico." E. H. Talbot. Harper's Weekly, 

October 19 1912. 
"The Hopeful Side in Mexico." World's Work, May, 1912. 
" The Menace of Mexico." J. C. Welliver. Technical World, 

December, 1912. 
" Peon and the Political Situation in Mexico." Review of 

Reviews, August, 1912. 
" Prospect for Mexico." C. H. Forbes-Lindsay. Lippincott's 

Magazine, October, 1912. 



Appendix E 221 

" The Situation in Mexico." D. Butterfield. North Amer- 
ican Magazine, November, 1912. 

" Washington's Statue in the City of Mexico." Bulletin of 
Pan American Union, March, 1912. 

" New Cattle Country." F. W. Robinson. Scribner's Maga- 
zine, February, 1912. 

"Unruly Mexico." Literary Digest, February 17, 1912. 

" Serious Nature of the Mexican Crisis." Current Litera- 
, ture. May, 1912. 

"Mexico's Trouble Maker: Zapata." J. A. Avirette. Col- 
lier's, February 24, 1912. 

" Zapata — The Mexican Attila." R. Barry. Harper's 
Weekly, January 20, 1912. 

" The Mexican Chaos : A Poll of the Press." Outlook, 
March 1, 1913. 

" Personal Side of Madero." Preston S. Krecker. Outlook, 
March 15, 1913. 

"Upheaval in Mexico." Assembly Herald, April, 1913. 

"Political and Missionary Interests in Mexico."- Mission- 
ary Review of the World, May, 1913. 

" Unrest in Unhappy Mexico." Missionary Review of the 
World, March, 1913. 

*' Mexican Diplomacy on the Eve of War with the United 
State." G. L. Rives. American Historical Review, Jan- 
uary, 1913. 

" Is the Mexican Situation Too Dangerous ? " Current 
Opinion, February, 1913. 

"Black Week in Mexico." Independent, February 27, 1913. 

"Downfall and Death of Madero." Outlook, March 1, 1913. 

" Evil Genius of the Madero Regime." Literary Digest, 
March 1, 1913. 

" Fighting in Mexico's Capital." Outlook, February 22, 
1913. 

" For Peace in Mexico." Independent, February 20, 1913. 

"Mexican Press on Madero's Failure." Literary Digest, 
March 1, 1913. 

"Mexico and Intervention." Outlook, February 22, 1913. 

" Mexico's New Leadership." Literary Digest, March 1, 
1913. 

" Our Duty to Mexico." Nation, February 27, 1913. 

"Our Mexican Duty." Literary Digest, February 22, 1913. 

" Unhappy Mexico." Independent, February 27, 1913. 

"University Education in Mexico." E. E. Brandon. Bul- 
letin of Pan American Union, January, 1913. 



222 Appendix E 

"Mexican People." E. L. C. Morse. Nation, March 20, 

1913. 
"Mexico's Brighter Side." Literary Digest, March 15, 1913. 
;" Battle of Mexico City." Current Opinion, March, 1913. 
V " Death of Madero — End of His Regime." Review of Re- 
views, April, 1913. 
/"Iron Hand in Mexico." Literary Digest, March 8, 1913. 
\ " Mexican Fear of Intervention." Literary Digest, March 
22, 1913. 
" Mexico and the United States." Living Age, April 5, 1913. 
, "Mexico: the Rule of Huerta." Outlook, March 8, 1913. 
"Religious Conditions in Mexico." Outlook, March 8, 1913. 
" American Capital in Mexico." Current Opinion, April, 

1913. 
"Mexico in Trouble." E. H. Blichfeldt. Chautauquan, 
April, 1913. 



ational 






36 



a 



12 

98 
555 
212 

24 
4,164 

57 



404 



5,526 



Sunday 
Schools 



72 



47 

20 
9 

98 
68 
101 
16 
23 
21 

48 
3 



454 



03 CO 






X3 O 



^2; 



1,624 

901 

445 

4,709 

2,591 

5,105 

517 

403 

890 

1,442 



18,62'; 



InduBtrial 
Schools 



o 


o » 


CO 


tH 13 




oj a> 


^^ 


Si'O 


S3 


BB 


C-i 


sm 


3 


"A 


•13 




a 





23 



23 






Medical 



m 



■Ij 


'O 


c 


O) 


a> 


ti 


'^^ 


o 


C3 


p. 


<^ 


« 


O 


;-l 


b. 


03 


<a 


41 


X. 


>^ 


b 


Ci 


a 


o 


;^ 


<t-l 



6,000 



241 



1.644 



7,885 



APPENDIX F 
Statistics op Pbotestant JIissions in Mexico, 1913 



AMERICAN SOCIETIES 



Ameiican Baptist Home Mission Society 

American Bible Society' 

American Board of Commissioners for For. Miss... . 

American Friends' Board of Foreign Missions 

Board of For. Miss., Metliodist Episcopal Cliurcli. . 
Board of For. Miss., Presbyterian Cliurch in U.S. A 
Board of Miss., Methodist Episcopal Cliurcli, Soiitli- 

Cliristian Woman's Board of Missions 

Dom. and For. Miss. Soc. , Protestant Episcopal CI 
Exec. Com. of For. Miss., Presbyterian Cli. (South) 
For. Dept. , International Coinmittee, Y. M. C. A. 
Foreign Miss. Board, Southern Baptist Convention 
Gen. Sli.ss. Board, Pentecostal Ch. of the Nazarene' 

Hephzibah Faith Missionary Association^ 

Peniel Missionary Society 

Seventh-Day Adventist Mission Board 

Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society. 



1861 

1878 

1872 

1870 

1873 

187 

1872 

181I5 

187(1 

1874 

1902 

1880 

1906 

1908 

1910 

1893 

1885 



Total, 17 Societies. 



Foreign Miesionariea 



1912-13 

1912 

1911 

1911-12 

1912 

1912-13 

1912 

lSlll-12 

1911 

1912-13 

1912 

191213 



75 82 112 331 



26 18 
32 



1,238 

1,156 
710 
7,1'37 
3,961 
7,390 
677 
1,114 
1,081 

2,087 



2,261 
1,'2'30 
14,391 

2,714 



1 

547 

5111 4 

4,618 6 

74-1 r, 



645 
33;ll 
7O0 
6,000 
25'3 



11 



24 
4,164 1(11 



1,6'24 

901 

445 

4,709 

2,591 

5,105 

517 

403 

890 

1,442 



5,5'26 454 18,62 



■Bibles circulated since 1876, 810,560. 

3 Statistics did not designate ordained and unordained males, 

3 Statistics from World Atlas of Christian Missions, 1910. 



narried and single women. 



INDEX 



INDEX 



(The pronunciation of Mexican names and words in the index calls for 
the use chiefly of four vowel sounds, as follows : a = a as in ah ; a = a as in 
ale and represents sound of e ; S and ee = sound of e as in equip and repre- 
sent sound of i ; oo = sound of oo in too, and represents sound of u. Of 
the consonants j often has the sound of h, and z the sound of th in th\n 
or 8 in say, the exceptions being where the words are Anglicized in whole 
or in part.) 

^ Atmosphere and scenery, 9 

Audiencia ( Aw-de-en'-se-a ) , 

the, 37 
Angustinians, 90 
Auricular confession, 131 
Authority of the priests, re- 
sults of, 96, 98, 99 
Awakening people, 58 
Azores Islands the bound- 
ary, 81 
Aztecs, 18 



Acapulco (A-ka-pool'-ko), 5 

Administrative change, fre- 
quency of, 43 

Altamirano, Ignacio (Al- 
ta-me-ril'-nd, Eeg-na'- 

the-o),27 

Altitudes, Mexico's, 3; ef- 
fect on nerves, 6 

Alvarado, Pedro de (Al-va- 
rii'-do, Pa'-dro da), 32 ^ 

American adventurers in 
Mexico, 170 

American Bible Society, 
180, 195 

American Civil War, re- 
ferred to, 49, 176, 181 

American Missions in Mex- 
ico, 181 

Ancestry problems, cliff- 
dwellers, 19 ; Japanese, 20 

Ancient civilization, evi- 
dences of, 32 

Animal life, 10, 11 

Anti- Americanism, 171 

Area and population, 211, 
212 

Arizona, 19, 45 

Army conditions, 61, 63, 64, 
70, 71 

Asiatic characteristics, 2 

Associated Reformed Pres- 
byterian Church, 183 



B 



Baptisms by early mission- 
aries, 84 

Baptist medical work in 
Guadalajara, 187; mis- 
sion beginnings, 182 

Barca, Mme. Calderon de la, 
94; quoted, 105-110 

Bazaine, Gen. F. A., 176 

Beans or frijoles, 8, 9 

Bee culture, 41 

Bible, distribution, 180; in- 
fluence of, 179, 194, 195; 
study in clubs, 178; un- 
known to priests, 98; ver- 
sions in use, 195 

Bible Societies' work, 195, 
196 

Birds, 11 

Blanket, one use of the, 129 

Blond type, Toltecs, 77 



227 



228 



Index 



Boys' schools, 190, 212 

Brazil, 81 

Brigandage, condoned, 66 ; 

temptations to, 65, 71 
British and Foreign Bible 

Society, 180 
Business attitude and 

motto, 127 
Butler, John W., quoted, 174 



C 



Cactus, 9, 10 
California, 44, 45 
Cannibalism as a religious 

rite, 79 
Carlotta, Empress, 47, 50 
Carranza ( Kar-ran'-tha ) , 

Gov., 71 
Cash booties for brigands, 

65, 66 
Catholic Church hostile to 

popular government, 43, 

59 
Catholic faith, Indians con- 
verts to, 21 
Catholic school standards 

improve, 189 
Catholicism, developments 

in, 92 
Catholics in Mexico finally 

favored revolt against 

Spain, 144 
Catone (Ca-to'-na) district, 

2 
Cause of improvement in 

school standards, 189 
Celibate priesthood, 131 
Censorship of the press, 

160 
Central plateau region of 

Mexico, 5-11 
Century plant, uses of, 10 
Chapel in Mexico City, 

grant of a, 178 
Charles V perpetuates pe- 
onage system, 120 



Chihuahua ( Che-hoo'-a-hoo'- 
a), state, 2 

Christian layman, the use- 
ful, 19t, 198; martyrs, 
199 

Christ. See Jesus Christ. 

Chris ts many in Mexican be- 
lief, 104, 105 

Church and crown allied, 
148 

Church, influence, 59, 60; 
distrusted in public af- 
fairs, 61 

Civil war, the American, 49, 
176, 181 

Classes reached by Prot- 
estant missionaries, 183, 
184 

Cliff dwellers referred to, 19 

Climate, coast and inland, 
3,4 

Coaberi (Ko-a-ba'-re), 79 

Coahuila (Ko-a-we'-la), 

state, 43, 71 

Coast-line and harbors, 5 

Coat of arms of Mexico City, 
18 

Coaxalcoatl (Ko-ax-al-ko'- 
atl), 79 

Coeducation not practicable, 
188 

Colegio de San Nicolas { Co- 
la'- je-6 da San Ne'-ko-las), 
America's oldest college, 
40 

Colima ( Ko-le'-ma ) , active 
volcano, 12 

Colonists, early Spanish, 27 

Comonf ort, Ignacio ( Ko- 
mon-f ort', Eeg-na'-the-o ) , 
46 

Congregationalists, 183; the- 
ological school, 191 

Conquest of Mexico, 32, 34 

Consolations of spiritual re- 
ligion, needed, 198; val- 
ued, 199 



Index 



229 



Constitution of 1824, 42-45; 
of 1857, 45, 46, 56, 175 

Constitution of United 
States used as basis, 42, 
45, 147 

Convent training, 134 

Cortez, Hernando (Kor'-tez, 
Her-nan'-do), 32, 34, 42, 
88 

Courting, 134 

Cooperation and organiza- 
tion, denominational, 156, 
157, 204; good effects of, 
159; in church work, 184 

Com and peppers the popu- 
lar food, 8, 9 

Creoles, 13, 14 

Crowbar, a concealed, 130 

Crucifix forms familiar, 80 

Cuauhtemoc ( Coo-aw'-ta- 
mok), last Aztec emperor, 
36 

Cuernavaca ( Kwer-na-va'- 
ca), Madero's ride to, 70 



D 



Declaration of Independ- 
ence, influence of our, 
143 

Degrading poverty, 121 

Deities of early times, 75; 
favorite gods, 79 

Diaz, Porfirio (De'-az Por- 
fe'-re-o), 2, 51, 53, 54, 59- 
62, 68, 120, 152 

Diaz, Mrs. Porfirio, 59 

Diego, Juan (De-a'-go, Hoo- 
an'), vision seen by, 108 

Distinguished natives, 22 

Doctrines accepted of the 
Catholic Church, 92 

Dolores ( Do-lo'-res ) , 40 

Dominicans, 90 

Domenech ( Do-ma'-nach ) , 
Abb6, on idolatrous Ca- 
tholicism, 85 



E 



Earliest stone work remains, 
19 

Early "conversions," 119 

Earthquakes, 12 

Education and the Church, 
116, 117 

Education in mission work, 
149, 168, 187-192 

Educational ideals and in- 
fluence in the state, 148, 
149, 150, 166-168; full 
statistics lacking, 166; 
some given, 212, 213 

Egypt, 30 

El Paso, Texas, incident in, 
169 

Elements in national awak- 
ening, 151-161 

Endowments, school, 191; 
openings for, 192 

English language, spread of, 
165 

Escobedo (As-ko-ba'-do), 

Gen., 50 

Evil effects of privilege, 91; 
of wealth, 90 

Export, articles of, 12, 13 



F 



" Fair God," the, 76 

Farias, Gomez ( Fii-re'-as, 
Go'-math), 91 

Fiber plants, 10, 12 

Firearms and revolutions, 
70 

Forecast for mission work, 
202-206 

Foreign capital and for- 
eigners, 151, 152 

Foreigners protected under 
Diaz, 55 

France, 2 

Franciscans, 90 

Freedom, meaning of, 145 



230 



Index 



Freedom of worship, 55 
French intervention, 175, 

176 
French revolution, influence 

of, 14, 31, 44 

G 

Gachupin ( Ga-choo'-peen ) , 
(nickname for Spaniard;, 
15 

Gods and saints, 74 

Gods, favorite, and their 
worship, 75-77 

Gold, output, 11; invites in- 
vasion, 35 

Gonzalez, Manuel (Gon-za'- 
laz, Man'-yoo-al ) , 53 

Goodrich, Joseph King, 
quoted, 2, 32, 142 

Gospel message needed, 138; 
valued, 199 

Governments of United 
States and Mexico friend- 
ly, 171 

Guadalajara (Gwa-da-la-ja'- 
ra). Baptists at work in, 
187 ; Congregational the- 
ological school in, 191 

" Guadalupe ( Gwa-da-loo'- 
pa). Holy Mother of," 
100; fable, and reasons 
for it, 109, 110 

Guana j uato { Gwa-na- j oo-a'- 
to), city, Methodist Epis- 
copal medical work, 187; 
state, 2, 40 

H 

Handicapped preacher, the, 

192 
Harbors, 5 
Haughwout, Lefford, M. A., 

quoted, 114 
Hidalgo, Miguel (He-dal'-go, 

Me-gal'), 40, 41, 107 
Highwayman's popularity, 

the, 66 



Holy week observance, 97 
Honor of business men, 126 
Hospitals, 187 
Household saint, the, 102 
Huerta ( Wer'-ta ) , Presi- 
dent, 71, 72, 168 
Huitzilopochtli (Wet-se-lo- 

poch'-tle), 79 
Human sacrifices, 79, 80 
Humboldt, Baron von, 
quoted, 84, 94 



Ignorance, of Mexican 
priests, 98; of the peon, 
116; some consequences, 
118 

Illiteracy diminishing, 160, 
162, 168; once the rule, 
117 

Indians, 13-29; language, 
17 

Indigenas ( Een-de'-jan-as ) , 
the, 13, 27 

Industrial and political 
evils resulting from igno- 
rance, 119-122 

Industrialism, the new, 150- 
154 

Industry, 213 

Insect pests, 4 

Intolerance of Roman Cath- 
olic Church, 95, 181 

Iron and steel, scarcity of, 
129 

Irrigation difficulties, 7; re- 
mains of system in Ari- 
zona and New Mexico, 19 

Ixtle fiber, 12 

Iturbide (Ee-toor'-be-da), 
G. M., 42 



Jalisco (Ha-lees'-ko), an- 
cient Toltec land, 19 
Jesuits, the, 59, 60 



Index 



231 



Jesus Christ, 138, 139, 193, 
199, 200 

Juarez, Benito ( Joo-ii'-rez, 
Ba-ne'-to), 23, 46, 49, 50, 
51, 91, 177, 182; quoted 
on Protestantism, 177 

Juarez, Sosthenes ( Joo-a'- 
rez, Sos-tha'-nes), use 
made of a Bible by, 178, 
179 

Justice, courts of, 213 



Labor conditions, 153, 155 
Lake Patzcuaro (Pats-kwa'- 

ro), 165 
Land tenure problems, 2, 57, 

58, 66; Madero and the, 

69, 71 
Language, English, 165; 

Spanish, 2 
Las Casas (Las Ca'-sas), 93 
" Laws of Reform," 175 
Lead, 11 
Lee, Gen., 181 
Lerdo, Miguel (Ler'-do Me- 

gal'), 91 
Lerdo, Don Sebastian de Te- 

jada (Ta'-ja-da), 51, 53 
Lexicon and History pre- 
pared by Padre Sahagun, 

17, 22 
Liberty of the press, 160 
Life in Mexico, 1842, 94 
Limantour ( Leem-an-toor' ) , 

Mr., 63 
Limestone, 12 
Local Government, 210 
Louis Napoleon, 47-49 
Lower California, 2 
Lying, tendency toward, 123, 

125 

M 

Machete ( ma-cha'-ta ) , the, 
129 



Madero (Ma-da'-ro), Presi- 
dent, 2, 61; and the land 
problem, 68, 69, 71, 170; 
difficulty in government, 
187 

Maguey, the, 10 

Marriage conditions, 114, 
131, 132 

Martyrs, Christian, 199 

Material religion, a, 122 

Maximilian, 47-50, 175, 176 

Maya (Ma'-ya), deities, 76 

Mazatlan ( Maz-at-llln' ) , 5 

Medical mission work, 187 

Mendoza, Antonia de (Men- 
do'-tha, An-to'-ne-a da), 36 

Mesquit tree, the vision in 
a, 103 

Mestizos, the, 23, 24 

Methodist Episcopal Church, 
the, 183; theological 
school, 191 

Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South, 183 

Mexican ministers, native, 
182 

Mexico, as a summer resort, 
5; conquest of, 32; free- 
dom for, 145-147; sum- 
mary of conditions in, 29, 
30 

Mexico as It Is, quoted, 85, 
86 

Mexico City, 6, 18, 19, 34, 
191; coat of arms, 18; in- 
surrection in, 70 

Mexico, Gulf of, 4 

Mexico, valley of, 16 

Middle class, a coming, 186 

Migrations, early tradition- 
al, 19 

Minerals, 11, 12 

Mines and yields, 2 

Miraculous cures and res- 
cues, 101 

Mission schools for girls, 
188 



232 



Index 



Mission work: educational, 

evangelical, medical, 187 
Modern ways being learned, 

156 
Mohaves, 20 
Monroe doctrine, 49 
Monterey, 5, 44; Methodist 

Episcopal Church, South, 

at work in, 187 
Montezuma, 18, 33, 35 
Moral evils resulting from 

ignorance, 24, 115, 122 
Moral, inheritances, 24, 115; 

stiffening and Protestant- 
ism, 20 
Morals and religion, 96, 119 
Morelia (Mo-ra'-le-a), 40 
Morelos (Mo-ra'-los), state, 

2 
Mules draw railway trams, 

152 
Music, interesting type of, 

194 

N 

Napoleon I and Spain, 144 
National traits, 158 
Native, Mexican, 21-23; 

ministers, 182 
Natives ignored in Pope's 

boundary line, 81 
Navajos (Na'-va-hos), 20 
Nerves and altitude, 6 
New Mexico, 19, 45 
New trades enter Mexico, 

153 

O 

Old customs, 155; in wor- 
ship, 86, 87 

Onyx, 12 

Open-air service forbidden, 
192 

Orders, the religious, ban- 
ished, 91, 92; growth of, 
89 



Oriental type seen in native 

Mexicans, 2 
Orient, little traffic with the, 

5 
Orozco (O-ros'-ko), Gen., 64 



Pacific, Coast, 19; Ocean, 4, 

57 
Patriots, 41, 42, 48, 146 
Peonage, 58, 119, 120 
Peons, 24, 28 
People of Mexico, 13-25 
Peppers a staple product, 9 
Philip IV petitioned in re- 
gard to the Orders in New 

Spain, 89, 90 
Pilfering, 128, 129 
Plant life, 9, 10 
Policies of Diaz, 54, 56 
Politeness and lying, 124, 

125 
Political evils resulting from 

ignorance, 119-122 
Political revolution, 143 
Politics assists the gospel, 

201 
Pope, Alexander VI, 81, 82; 

Julius II, 82 
Potatoes, 8 
Pratt, Dr. H. B., 195 
Preaching, a lost art in 

Catholic Church, 96, 97; 

difficulties attending evan- 
gelistic, 192, 193 
Prejudice against haste on 

railroads, 152 
Presbyterian, Church work, 

182; theological seminary, 

191 
Presbyterian Church, South, 

183 
Press, the Mexican, 160-163 
Priests, bad example of, 98, 

123 
Printing and freedom, 144 



Index 



233 



Problem, a missionary, 197 
Production, 213 
Products^ indigenous, 8 
Promises, futile, 126 
Property regulations, the 

new, 175; purchase in 

Mexico City, 178 
" Protest " required against 

Catholic doctrines, 96 
Protestant Episcopal Church 

Mission, 182 
Protestant progress, one 

cause of, 137 
Protestantism advocated by 

public men, 177, 182 
Public opinion, a new, 169 
Public schools, 136, 149, 167, 

168 
Puebla, 52; training school 

at, 191 
Puntilla, the, 129 
"Puppy," 166 

Pyramids, Toltec, 77; astro- 
nomical adjustment, 78 ; 

compared with Cheops, 78 

Q 

Quer^taro ( Ka-ra'-ta-ro ) , 

40, 41 
Quetzalcoatl (Ket-sRl-ko'- 

atl), Toltec god, 76 
Quicksilver, 11 
Quintana Roo (Keen-ta'-na 

E,oo), territory, 2 

R 

Racial conditions, 13-15 
Railroads, 12, 55, 151, 152; 

construction camps, 153; 

tools purloined, 129, 130 
Rainfall, 6 
Rankin, Miss Melinda, 180, 

182 
Recollections of Mexico, 

1840, 94 
Records, native, destroyed by 

conquerors, 16 



"Reform Laws," 46, 175- 
177, 192 

Reformation, the, and the 
individual, 144 

Religion, statistics of, 212, 
213 

Republic proclaimed, 42, 
146, 176 

Republican ideals, 39, 40 

Revolution, 41, 42; of 1911, 
61, 187; damage caused 
by, 169 

Reyes, Gen., 169 

Riley, H. C, in Mexico City, 
182 

Rio Grande, river and val- 
ley, 5, 44 

Ritual, drawbacks of, 123 

Rival Virgins, 105-110 

Roman Catholic Church be- 
ing vitalized, 201; privi- 
leges granted to, 175 

Ross, Prof., referred to, 115 

S 

Sahagun, Padre, 17, 18, 22 

Saints' days and names, 101 

San Bias (San Bias), an- 
cient Toltec land, 19 

San Francisco, monastery 
of, purchased, 178 

San Juan Teotihuacan (San 
Hoo-an' Ta-o-te-wa-kan' ) , 
pyramids at, 77 

San Luis Potosi (San Loo- 
ees' Po-to-se'), city, 191; 
state, 2 

Santa Anna ( San'-ta An'-na ) , 
Gen., 43, 45, 52 

Scanty records of the past, 
78 

Scenery, 9 

Schools desired, 149; en- 
dowments needed, 191, 
192 

Secular clergy, 92 



234 



Index 



Self-respect, 201 

Self-supporting congrega- 
tions, 204 

Sequestration and sale of 
church property, 176, 177 

Sermons in Holy Week, 97 

Servility a trait, 124 

Sierra Madre ( Se-er'-ra Ma'- 
dra), ranges, 3 

Silk-worm culture, 41 

Silver output, 11 

Singing attracts to church 
and school, 193 

Sisal hemp, 2 

Smelting plants, 12 

Snow line, the, 8 

Social grades, 13 

Society of Friends, 182 

Songs of the people, 194 

Southern Baptist Church, 
183 

Southern sympathizers in 
Mexico, 181 

Spanish missionary work, 
81, 83, 84; later, 88; 
mixed with political treat- 
ment, 89 

Spanish stock, 25, 26, 28 

Spike stealing, 130 

Spiritual religion needed, a, 
122 

Statistics of Protestant mis- 
sions, 183, 223 

Stealing and servility, 127, 
128 

Stock-raising, 13 

Suarez ( Swa'-rath ) , Vice- 
president, 71 

Superstitions, 74 ; idola- 
trous, retained in worship, 
84, 85; fostered by Cath- 
olic Church, 100, 101 
Syndicates, land held by, 67 



Tampieo (Tam-pe'-ko), 5 



Taraseo (Ta-ras'-ko), In- 
dians, 165 

Taxation problem, 57, 59, 
67, 71 

Teachers' Normal Course, 
189 

Telegraph, the, 163 

Telephone, the, 163 

Tenochtitlan ( Ta-noch- tit- 
Ian'), 34 

Teocallis, 77, 79 

Terrazas ( Ter-ra'-thas ) , 

family, 2 

Testimony, Christian death- 
bed, 200 

Texas, 43, 44 

Texcoco (Tex-ko'-ko), lake, 
35 

Theological schools, 191 

Thieves' market in Mexico 
City, 128 

Thompson, Hon, Waddy, 94 

Timber, wealth in, 68 

Title granted to Spain by 
Pope Alexander VI, 82 

Tlascala (Tlas-ka'-la), 34 

Tobacco, 8, 12 

Tollan, or Tula, ancient city, 
76 

Toltec, civilization, 18; re- 
ligion, 76, 78; worship, 79 

Toluca (To-loo'-ka), 6 

Tomatoes, 8 

Topography, 3, 4 

Tortillas, 8; making of, 135 

Travel by train a mania, 
153 

Tribal achievements and his- 
tory, 15, 17, 18 

Troyer, L. E., quoted, 174 

Turner, John Kenneth, 
quoted, 2, 114 

U 

Unchanging Rome, 110 
United States, 2, 15, 23, 42- 



Index 



235 



46, 49, 170-172, 180, 181; 
war with, 43-45, 171 

V 

Valera Bible, the, 195 
Valladolid ( Val-Ia-do-lid' ) , 

40 
Vanderbilt, W. E., quoted, 

142 
Vegetation, 9, 10 
Verdia, Perez, Historia de 

Mexico, 89 
Vera Cruz, 5, 35, 44 
Veta Madre (Va'-ta Ma'- 

dra), lode, 2 
Vice and sin, 115 
Viceroys, days of the, 36 
Village communes, 67 
Virgin Mary, worship of, 87 
Volcanoes, 12 
Volunteers, native, for the 

ministry, 196, 197 
Voters, 56 

W 

Wallace, William, quoted, 2 
War god, the, and his wor- 
ship, 79 
Wedding fees, 132 
What freedom means, 145 
Winter, absence of, 6 



Winter, Nevin 0., quoted, 

74 
Woman in Mexico, 130-136 
Workers needed in mission 

and school work, 205 
World-community, Mexico 

in the, 164 
Worship, old customs in, 86, 

87 



York rite of masonry, 177 
Young America in Mexico, 

155 
Yucatan, 2 
Yucca, plant and fiber, 9, 10 



Zacatecas ( Za-ka-te'-kas ) , 

city, 6; state, 2 
Zapata (Sa-pa'-ta), Gen., 

64, 71 
Zapatist revolution, 2 
Zaragoza ( Sa-ra-go'-tha ) , 

Gen., 52 
Zuloaga ( Soo-lo-U'-ga ) , 

Gen., 46 
Zumarraga, Juan de (Soo- 

mar-ra'-ga, Hoo-an' da), 

108 
Zuiii, 20 




\ 




b3 Q tW R. 



/ 



Forward Mission Study Courses 



"Anywhere, provided it he forward." — David Livingstone. 



Prepared under the direction of the 
MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT 

OP THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA 



Editorial Committee: T. H. P. Sailer, Chairman; A. E. 
Armstrong, T. B. Ray, C. L. White, J. E. McAfee, A. R. 
Gray, G. F. Sutherland, H. P. Douglass, W. E. Doughty, 
W. W. Cleland, J. H. Poorman. 



The Forward Mission Study Courses are an outgrowth of a 
conference of leaders in young people's mission work, held in 
New York City, December, 1901. To meet the need that was 
manifested at that conference for mission study text-books suit- 
able for young people, two of the delegates, Professor Amos 
R. Wells, of the United Society of Christian Endeavor, and 
Mr. S. Earl Taylor, Chairman of the General Missionary Com- 
mittee of the Ep worth League, projected the Forward Mission 
Study Courses, These courses have been oflacially adopted by 
the Missionary Education Movement, and are now under the 
immediate direction of the Editorial Committee of the Move- 
ment. The books of the Movement are now being used by 
more than forty home and foreign mission boards and socie- 
ties of the United States and Canada. 

The aim is to publish a series of text-books covering the 
various home and foreign mission fields and problems and 
written by leading authorities. 

The following text-books having a sale of over 1,200,000 
have been published: 



1. The Price of Africa. (Biographical.) By S. Earl 
Taylor. 

2. Into All the World. A general survey of missions. 
By Amos R. Wells. 

3. Princely Men in the Heavenly Kingdom. (Bio- 
graphical.) By Harlan P. Beach. 

4. Sunrise in the Sunrise Kingdom. Revised Edition. 
A study of Japan. By John H. DeForest. 

5. Heroes op the Cross In America. Home Missions. 
(Biographical.) By Don O. Shelton. 

6. Daybreak in the Dark Continent. Revised Edition. 
A study of Africa. By Wilson S. Naylor. 

7. The Christian Conquest op India. A study of 
India. By James M. Thoburn. 

8. Aliens or Americans? A study of Immigration. 
By Howard B. Grose. 

9. The Uplift of China. Revised Edition. A study of 
China. By Arthur H. Smith. 

10. The Challenge op the City. A study of the City, 
By Josiah Strong. 

11. The Why and How of Foreign Missions. A study 
of the relation of the home Church to the foreign missionary 
enterprise. By Arthur J. Brown. 

12. The Moslem World. A study of the Mohammedan 
World. By Samuel M. Zwemer, 

13. The Frontier. A study of the New West. By Ward 
Piatt. 

14. South America: Its Missionary Problems. A study 
of South America. By Thomas B. Neely. 

15. Tne Upward Path: The Evolution of a Race. A 
study of the Negro. By Mary Helm. 

16. Korea in Transition. A study of Korea. By James 
S. Gale. 

17. Advance in the Antilles. A study of Cuba and 
Porto Rico. By Howard B. Grose. 

18. The Decisive Hour of Christian Missions. A 
study of conditions throughout the non-Christian world. By 
John R. Mott. 

19. India Awakening. A study of present conditions in 
India. By Sherwood Eddy. 

20. The Church of the Open Country. A study of 
the problem of the Rural Church. By Warren H. Wilson. 

21. The Emergency in China. A study of present-day 
conditions in China. By F. L. Hawks Pott. 

22. Mexico To-Day: Social, Political, and Religious Con- 
ditions. A study of present-day conditions in Mexico. By 
George B. Winton. 

23. Immigrant Forces. A study of the immigrant in 
his home and American environment. By William P. 
Shriver. 



In addition to these courses, tlie following have been pub- 
lished especially for use among younger persons: 

1. Uganda's White Man of Work. The story of Alex- 
ander Mackay of Africa. By Sophia Lyon Fahs. 

2. Servants of the King. A series of eleven sketches of 
famous home and foreign missionaries. By Robert E. Speer. 

3. Under Marching Orders. The story of Mary Porter 
Gamewell of China. By Ethel Daniels Hubbard. 

4. Winning the Oregon Country. The story of Marcus 
Whitman and Jason Lee in the Oregon country. By John T. 
Faris. 

5. The Black Bearded Barbarian. The story of George 
Leslie Mackay of Formosa. By Marian Keith. 

6. Ann of Ava. The story of Ann Hasseltine Judson. 
By Ethel Daniels Hubbard. 

These books are published by mutual arrangement among 
the home and foreign mission boards, to whom all orders 
should be addressed. They are bound uniformly and are sold 
at 50 cents in cloth, and 85 cents in paper; postage, 8 cents 
extra. 



